It wasn’t until the ninth inning and the fifth Potomac pitcher that Winston-Salem couldn’t put up a run last night, as the Dash demolished the P-Nats, 16-6.
The Dash pounded out 20 hits over the first eight innings, including three doubles and four home runs. Perhaps the biggest mystery might be why cleanup hitter Dan Black only went 1-for-6.
Starter Matt Grace suffered the worst of the beating, giving up 10 runs — all earned — on 12 hits over three and 1/3rd innings. The outing pushed his ERA from 5.24 in 6.27 in little more than an hour.
The team’s other Matt (Swynenberg) didn’t fare much better, taking a boot to the [prosterior] with four runs over two innings, but answering the question as to which starter was the odd man out when Potomac dropped from a six-man rotation to the usual five after playing multiple doubleheaders in the last two weeks before the All-Star break.
Joe Testa and Ryan Demmin were both roughed up before Rob Wort, who hadn’t pitched in eight days, was summoned for the final frame. The closer struck out the side in a 1-2-3 ninth.
Offensively, Potomac fared fairly well, especially with a pair of rehabbing major-leaguers that brought the donuts (0-for-7 combined) and hustled like DMV clerks. Conversely, Randolph Oduber and Adrian Sanchez each had three hits, with the Groovin’ Aruban beating out two infield hits and tripling to the right-center gap and Sacnhez doubling to the left-center gap.
Jason Martinson capped off the Potomac scoring with a solo shot in the last half inning.
The loss drops Potomac to 2-1 in the second half and back into second place behind Lynchburg.
Wilmington comes to town for four, with today’s start time pushed from 1:05 to 4:05 to accommodate the Blue Rocks’ coming in from Zebulon, NC after a doubleheader. Nathan Karns (1-2, 4.15) is slated to take the hill against Tyler Sample (1-8, 5.86).