Sunday Afternoon In Woodbridge

It’s not quite the rookie wall, but Cameron Selik may be hitting it.

The 23-year-old flirted with perfection for one turn through the lineup plus two batters before giving up a walk. OK, no problem, right?

Wrong.

A double over the head of Eury Perez in center broke up both the no-hitter and the shutout, and tied the game at 1-1. A home run to right put the Pelicans up 3-1. A triple to left-center, then a double to right-center and Selik’s day was done.

Maybe it’s day games that don’t agree with Cameron, or perhaps the Pfitz itself — his ERA is nearly 1½ runs lower at night, 2½ lower on the road. But my gut says that as his first full (long) professional season as a starter, he’s hitting a rough patch that affects a lot of pitchers when they pitch deeper into the summer than they ever have before.

Of course, it doesn’t help that Selik was facing a team chock-full of lowball hitters and was following a pitcher with a similar repertoire. His pitches may have had a little less life on them, but they were down in the zone.

The starters-turned-relievers that followed Selik did an admirable job to keep the team within striking distance, as Mitchell Clegg stranded two runners for Selik, then retired five straight before Myrtle Beach’s 5-6-7 batters (all went 2-for-4) repeated their feats with three straight singles. Trevor Holder did likewise for Clegg, then retired three straight but was able to work around a leadoff double in the 8th. The two combined for four and 1/3rd innings, with one run allowed on four hits.

I call this out because that kind of effort only gets mentioned when the hitters can make the comeback, and lately, that seems to be too tall an order for the Potomac nine. Take away two errors by the newest Pelican, Andrew Clark, and it’s just one base runner over the middle third of the game, a two-out walk to Steve Souza.

Even after Jose Lozada’s leadoff HR in the 7th, the offense just couldn’t get it going — a hit batsmen and a single set up runners on first and second for Jeff Kobernus, who then flied out weakly to right and the ordinarily “money man” Destin Hood popped up to the catcher.

The way the game ended was almost emblematic of the struggle: a two-out single, then a pickoff at first.

The 5-2 loss was a missed chance to gain ground on Frederick, while Lynchburg was rained out of its finale with Wilmington, reducing the Potomac lead to 5½ games.

The P-Nats embark on a quick three-game roadtrip to Kinston before returning home for a six-games-in-seven days homestand against Winston-Salem and Wilmington.