Strong pitching from start to finish led the Potomac Nationals to a 3-1 win on Sunday afternoon.
Matt Grace turned in a season-high six and a 1/3rd innings, scattering seven hits in the field, with an eighth going deep over the LF wall in the 4th innings for the lone Wilmington run. The southpaw also set down a stretch of seven straight before leaving with one out in the 7th and the bases loaded, clinging to a 2-1 lead.
Enter Rob Wort, arguably the team’s most valuable reliever right now. With zero margin for error, the lean righthanded struck out the first batter he faced and got a popup to end the inning. In the 8th, he struck out the side to increase his total to 24 in 14⅓ innings, but surprisingly it was his first hold of the ’12 campaign.
Offensively, this was not one of Potomac’s finest efforts — just three runs on ten hits. But the first run and the first hit came off the bat of the hulking left fielder, Kevin Keyes, who scorched a line about 12′ above the 400-foot sign in center field to lead off the third.
Potomac would get the second run two innings later after an Adrian Sanchez double and Beau Seabury single set up a 1st-and-3rd situation with nobody out. Randolph Oduber tapped one down the third base line but Wilmington’s Cheslor Cuthbert decided to go for the outs instead of the play at the plate.
The insurance run came in the last of the 8th, as Blake Kelso legged out a double and took third on Ricky Hague’s single to right. It looked like the Blue Rocks were going to escape for just a brief moment when Oduber bounced a grounder again, this time to second, but instead threw it away. Everybody came in to score, but the umpires ruled the ball had gone dead, and sent back two Bloxom and Oduber to third and second.
Zach Walters was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out and Michael Taylor whiffed and Kevin Keyes flew out to center to strand the sixth and seventh batters of the game.
Cameron Selik worked around a one-out single to earn his third save, slinging dropping a 2-2 changeup slider on Jake Kuebler for a swinging strikeout to end the game.
The loss gives Potomac the series win at 2-1 and finished the 10-game homestand at 6-4. Tomorrow, however, is their last secheduled off day until the All-Star break (June 18-20), with Potomac slated to make up three April rainouts for 44 games over 41 days, as they embark on a six-game road trip to visit the Salem Red Sox and (finally) the Carolina Mudcats (formerly the Kinston Indians).