Saturday’s News & Notes
The "A" teams win, but the rest don't on Friday night
The Quick Rundown…
| Team | Yesterday’s Result | Today’s Game | Pitching Matchup |
| Syracuse Chiefs | Lost, 6-4 | vs. Scranton Wilkes-Barre, 7:00 p.m. | Tom Milone (3-4, 3.84) vs. D.J. Mitchell (4-4, 2.95) |
| Harrisburg Senators | Lost, 9-5 | vs. Akron, 7:00 p.m. | Oliver Perez (2-1, 1.89) vs. T.J. McFarland (2-4, 4.94) |
| Potomac Nationals | Won, 9-8 | vs. Salem, 7:05 p.m. | Trevor Holder (2-7, 7.05) vs. Junichi Tazawa (0-1, 8.76) |
| Hagerstown Suns | Won, 6-5 | @ Delmarva, 7:05 p.m. | A.J. Cole (1-4, 3.42) vs. Parker Bridwell (0-0, 9.64) |
| DSL Nationals | Lost, 7-5 (10 inn.) vs. DSL Yankees1 |
@ DSL Mets1, 10:30 a.m. | TBD vs. TBD |
Louisville 6 Syracuse 4
• Meyers (L, 3-3) 5⅔ IP, 14H, 6R, 6ER, 0BB, 8K, HR
• Pena 2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 3K
• Marrero 2-4, R, 2B, HR, 3RBI, BB
• Hulett 4-4, R, 2 2B, RBI, BB
This game had the makings of the wrong kind of laugher when Brad Meyers gave up three runs on five hits and one error in the first inning. Syracuse, however, immediately answered in the bottom of the frame with a majestic three-run blast that had the radio announcers in awe. Meyers gave up a solo shot to the Syracuse nemesis and Reds blocked prospect Devin Mesoraco in the top of the third. In the bottom of the third, the Chiefs wasted a leadoff double by Chris Marrero. New fan favorite Matt Antonelli didn’t light up the box score, but he did earn a two-out walk in front of a Tug Hulett double for Syracuse’s final run. The 4-4 game fell apart for the Chiefs in the top of the 6th. Meyers yielded a cheap single to leadoff. With two outs Alonso Yadier Alongso singled and that bad, bad man Mesoraco tripled, yielding two runs. Atahulapa “Huapa Time” Severino stopped the bleeding by stranding Mesoraco on third with a Juan Francisco groundout after a walk to Jeremy Hermida. Ryan Tatusko made his Syracuse debut, pitching a scoreless 9th inning. Overall, the Bats have a fearsome lineup with their 1-6 hitters all hitting well over .300. They hit as advertised tonight with a total of 16 knocks, 14 of them against Meyers.
Akron 9 Harrisburg 5
• Roark (L, 3-2) 2⅔ IP, 4H, 7R, 7ER, 3BB, 3K, HR
• Carlos Martinez 3⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 3BB, K
• Lombardozzi 3-5, R, K
• Gilbert 1-4, R, 3R HR, 3RBI
Harrisburg got off to an auspicious start over the Akron Aeros with a five-run first inning, punctuated by a three run home run from Archie Gilbert, who is now hitting .297/.371/.485. Lombardozzi continued to solidify his status as a one of the premier leadoff hitters in the Eastern League with a 3-for-5 night, answering his critics in prospect evaluation land with a .297/.371/.485 line. Sadly, Tanner Roark did not answer his critics. He fell apart with three walks and a hit by pitch as part of a seven-run top of the 3rd before Carlos Martinez, who pitched three and 1/3rd strong innings to keep the Senators in the game, ended the inning on a Matt Lawson groundout. The Pats, Lehman and McCoy, each yielded runs in the 8th and 9th innings to complete the scoring in a frustrating Harrisburg loss.
Potomac 9 Salem 8
• Clegg 1⅔ IP, 5H, 4R, 1ER, 2BB, 1K
• Bronson 4⅓ IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 1K, HR
• Lozada 2-4, 2B, 3RBI
• Perez 3-5, 2R, RBI
• Hood 2-5, 2B, RBI
It is possible to win back-to-back games at home. See how Potomac did it for just the second time this season, Last Night In Woodbridge
Hagerstown 6 Delmarva 5
• Grace (W, 7-4) 6IP, 5H, 3R, 2ER, 4BB, 2K, HR
• Eusebio (H, 6) 2IP, 0H, 0R, BB, K
• Kelso 3-5, RBI
• Harper 2-5, R
• Newsome 2-3, 2RBI
With a 6-5 win over the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Hagerstown Suns lowered their magic number to clinch a division title to eight with nine games left in the first half. Matt Grace tied for the Sally League lead in wins with his 7th on the strength of six innings pitched with three runs allowed on five hits and for walks. The trio of Blake Kelso combined to go 7-for-13 as the Shorebirds stayed in the game by turning four double plays to offset the Suns 13 hits and two walks drawn. Wilson Eusebio earned the hold with two scoreless innings while Ben Graham survived a rocky ninth inning (two runs allowed on three hits) to “get” the save.
DSL Yankees1 7 DSL Nationals 5 (10 inn.)
• Navarro 3⅓ IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, BB, 4K
• Guzman 3⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 6K
• Mercedes 2-4
• Eusebio 3-4, R, 2B, HR, 3RBI
Diomedes Eusebio’s RBI single (his third hit and third RBI) in the bottom of the ninth tied it for the D-Nats, but Inocencio Heredia was pushed one inning too far as the DSL Yankees1 answered with two in the top of the tenth to give them a 7-5 loss. Miguel Navarro’s 2011 debut was a rocky one, with four runs given up on four hits and a walk over three and a 1/3rd innings. Yermin Mercedes was second to Eusebio in the hit column with a 2-for-4 game.
Anyone have any word on draft pick signings? When does the GCL and NYP league start their season?
Most of the lower-round picks should sign in time for the beginning of those two seasons, which are the 17th for the NY-Penn and the 20th for the GCL.
Expect a boatload of signings to be announced in the next week to 10 days. The Nationals drafted a lot of College seniors this year to fill rosters.
Check the Draft Tracker (the link is on the right of this page, under “Resources”) for updates, in case you miss updates here in the posts.
Wow, 14 hits in 5+ innings; Meyers is going to have a couple of sleepless nights over this.
Hope Lehman gets back to his ‘lights out’ closing groove after losing some rust. we basically got Roark for free, but AA seems too high for him.
Mark L: Meyers has some weakness for giving up the long-ball in the past, but last night was just a bad outing, imo. Both Roark & Tatusko were very steady at the AA level last year (Fresno & Harrisburg). This year, not so much.
The thing about Tatusko, BinM, is he gained about 4-5 mph on his fastball after the trade, which really had a lot of people thinking much better things for him.
We gave up a bag of used baseballs to get him & Roark, so any criticism has to be tempered.
I agree, the Nationals gave up the so-called ‘bag of used baseballs’ (Guzman) for two pitchers who helped Harrisburg into the playoffs last year. I don’t mean to sound critical, but they are both underachieving in my eyes this year.
Meyers does not look like Meyers … have to wonder if like Kimball the injury bug hasn’t bitten yet again. He lost an entire year to the foot so one wonders if he isn’t hiding something in order to avoid that disappointing fate?
Last night a lot of hits between infield and outfield…a pitch-to-contact in AA worked well for Meyers but doesn’t seem to apply at this level…flukey hits and only 3 were hit hard (one home run)….an adjustment, but confident Meyers will figure it out…