The next time folks complain about the umps taking away any chance of winning, you might want to remember this Saturday night.
Down 4-2, with a steady rain falling, the P-Nats were allowed to bat in the bottom of the eighth. Following a Destin Hood whiff, Justin Bloxom lifted the spirits of the announced crowd of 4,973 with an opposite-field shot to right field to pull within one. Back-to-back singles by Steven Souza and J.P. Ramirez put the tying run on second.
Somehow, Sandy Leon beat out a groundball that should have ended the inning, and for all intents and purposes, the game. Francisco Soriano drew a walk to load the bases, to set up Eury Perez’s two-run, two-out single that pulled the P-Nats ahead. It was the only hit with RISP for the night, but it proved to be the gamewinner, as the umps ordered the tarp pulled after the 8th and eventually called the game.
The improbable victory took the edge off another butt-ugly game by the defense. The first three runs would score in the top of the first without a clean single to the outfield, with “singles” to shortstop, third, and second and two errors charged before Danny Rosenbaum would take matters into his own hands and strike out the eighth batter of the inning to end it.
Rosenbaum would get a no-decision for his seven innings of work. He still hasn’t quite shaken his walking ways, issuing three for the night, but retired the leadoff batter in five of the next six innings and worked out of a 1st-and-2nd-no-outs jam in the sixth. He was charged with all four Wilmington runs on 10 hits and struck out five.
Dean Weaver would get the win for his efforts in the eighth, in which he hit a batter that was erased by Sandy Leon, and struck out a batter.
With the win, Potomac improves to 13-21 and sends out Mitchell Clegg (1-2, 6.29) to face Wilmington ace Jake Odorizzi (3-0, 1.97), who’s coming off a 13K performance against Salem last Tuesday.