Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Probable Pitchers |
| Syracuse | Won, 8-4 | vs. Toledo, 7:00 p.m. |
Maya (11-8, 3.52) vs. Smyly (0-2, 7.50) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 4-1 | @ Erie, 7:05 p.m. |
Perry (1-3, 2.00) vs. Gayhart (1-2, 4.19) |
| Potomac | Lost, 8-5 | @ Salem, 7:05 p.m. |
Meyer (2-1, 0.93) vs. McCarth (0-1, 3.38) |
| Hagerstown | Won, 5-3 | @ Delmarva, 7:05 p.m. |
Estevez (4-1, 6.31) vs. Guzman (1-1, 7.94) |
| Auburn | Won, 12-5 | @ State College, 7:05 p.m. |
Pineyro (2-1, 3.27) vs. Sampson (0-0, 2.83) |
| GCL Nationals | Lost, 2-0 | @ GCL Astros, 12:00 p.m. |
TBD vs. TBD |
| DSL Nationals | Won, 10-4 | @ DSL Pirates2, 10:30 a.m. |
TBD vs. TBD |
Syracuse 8 Toledo 4
• Duke (W, 14-5) 8+IP, 9H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 5K, HR
• Davis 1IP, H, 2R, 1ER, BB, 0K,
• Rivero 3-4, 2R, HR(10), RBI
• Marrero 3-4
• Brown 3-5, R, 3B, RBI
The Chiefs scored three runs early and five runs late en route to an 8-4 plucking of the Mud Hens. Zach Duke may have sat too long in the last of the 8th, giving up a single and a home run to the first two batters in the 9th in an attempt for back-to-back shutouts. Duke finished with both Toledo runs on nine hits, no walks, and five strikeouts. Syracuse pounded out 15 hits, with Carlos Rivero, Chris Marrero, and Corey Brown each had three of them, with Rivero smacking his 10th big fly of the season.
Akron 4 Harrisburg 1
• Wang (L, 1-4) 4⅔ IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 3K
• McCoy 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, K
• Lozada 2-4
• Bynum 2-4, R, 2B, HR, RBI
Chien-Ming Wang resumed his “rehab,” making his sixth start for Harrisburg, which lost yet again, 4-1. Wang gave up two runs on three hits and two walks to the sixth-best offense in the E.L. The Senators outhit the Aeros 8 to 6, but went 0-for-5 with RISP and stranded seven baserunners. Seth Bynum broke up the shutout with a leadoff homer in the 8th. Brian Goodwin was pulled from the game after failing to slide on a double play that ended the 6th, but not until he had taken the field for warmups in the top of the 7th. This is not the first time manager Matt LeCroy has asserted his authority with such boorishness, as he pulled the same stunt last summer in Potomac with Eury Perez.
Salem 8 Potomac 5
• Grace (L, 7-12) 5IP, 8H, 6R, 3ER, 2BB, 4K
• Wort 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Keyes 2-4, R, HR, 3RBI
• Hague 2-4, R, 2B
• Soriano 2-2, R
Kevin Keyes’s three-run shot in the top of the 9th highlighted a four-run comeback bid that fell three runs short as Salem sent Potomac to its seventh loss in the past nine games, 8-5. Starter Matt Grace was tagged for six runs (three earned) on eight hits and two walks for his team-leading 12th loss. Keyes went 2-for-4 as did Ricky Hague while Francisco Soriano singled twice off the bench. Potomac is now 4½ games behind in the C.L. North race, with a tragic number of 14 with 17 games left to play.
Hagerstown 5 Delmarva 3
• Schwartz 6IP, 9H, R, ER, 0BB, 7K
• Holt 2IP, 3H, R, ER, 0BB, K, HR
• Norfork 2-4, R, HR, 2RBI
• Montilla two OF assist at HP
Hagerstown rallied for three in the 9th and held off Delmarva for a 5-3 win that put the Suns back atop the Sally League North. Starter Blake Schwartz turned in six strong innings, scattering nine hits and allowing one run, no walks, and setting down seven on strikes. Brett Newsome, Cutter Dykstra, and Khayyan Norfork each went 2-for-4, with Norfork’s two-run homer highlighting the ninth-inning rally.
Auburn 12 Mahoning Valley 5
• Lee 3⅔ IP, 9H, 5R, 4ER, 2BB, 3K
• Medina (W, 1-3) 2⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K, 2-0 IR-S
• Pleffner 4-6, 2B, 3RBI
• Renda 3-5, 2R, BB, 2RBI
• McQuillan 0-3, 2R, 3BB
Rallies in the 9th were de rigeur last night for the Nats as Auburn piled on five in the final frame for a 12-5 win to split the two-game series with Mahoning Valley. Starter Nick Lee gave up all five Scrappers runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out three. Silvio Medina got his first New York-Penn League win with two and a 1/3rd innings of one-hit relief with no walks and three strikeouts. Shawn Pleffner drove in three and went 4-for-6, followed closely by Tony Renda’s 3-for-5 night with two runs scored as the Doubledays registered 15 hits total. Auburn continues to hold a three-game lead in the Pinckney Division as they wind their way back to Western New York with a pair of games today and tomorrow against third-place State College.
GCL Cardinals 2 GCL Nationals 0
• Selsor (L, 0-3) 5IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 3K
• Peters 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, K
• Lippincott 3-4, 2B
• Poole 1-3, 2B
The G-Cards scored twice in the top of the first and made it stand up for a 2-0 shutout of the G-Nats. Casey Selsor started and gave up both Cardinals runs on six hit and two walks while striking out three for his third loss. Adalberto Mieses and John Peters each turned in scoreless innings in relief. The G-Nats bats were limited to six hits, with Bryan Lippincott accounting for half of them with a 3-for-4 afternoon.
DSL Nationals 10 DSL “Redbacks” 4
• Gomez (W, 7-3) 5IP, 2H, R, ER, 3BB, 4K
• Sanchez (SV, 1) 3IP, 3H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, K
• Mercedes 3-5, 3R, 2B, 4RBI
• Novas 3-5, 2-2B, 3RBI
A four-run sixth broke open a 3-1 game as the DSL Nationals cruised to a 10-4 beatdown of the DSL “Redbacks.” Elisaul Gomez won his team-leading seventh game with a run allowed on two hits and three hits over five innings while striking out four. Yermin Mercedes and Randy Novas both went 3-for-5, with Mercedes scoring three times and driving in four and Novas plating three and doubling twice.
Good for Matt LeCroy.
As any parent will tell you, kids make kids mistakes but they respond to discipline and boundaries.
This is part of what the minor leagues are for. This doesn’t mean Goodwin is a bad kid, he just made a mistake. Odds are he will learn from this and be better for it.
Matt LeCroy is teaching Goodwin the ‘Nationals Way’. I’ve heard tell of times they did similar things to Espinosa and Harper.
Way to go, Matt! You can’t break the youngsters of boorish behaviour too soon.
Actually, the boorishness was on the part of LeCroy. He could have benched Goodwin immediately but instead chose to make a spectacle. That’s fine for high schoolers, but it’s uncouth for professionals.
I see your point, Luke, and at the Major League level I think LeCroy would have been wrong and I think if Goodwin had more time in service, as they say in the military, in the minors it would have been wrong as well.
But Goodwin is a hot-shot (1st round pick) in his first pro season. He hasn’t earned the right not to be shown-up after a failing-to-hustle play.
Somehow I don’t thing the manner in which he got benched will thwart Goodwin’s minor league development.
But, we can always agree to disagree on this one.
I’d love to know what happened to Walters after he was benched and called out after doing the same about a month ago.
Ony the beat writer in Harrisburg would have that answer.
Not sure if you can put a cause-effect relationship to that because Rupp did the same thing to Walters, albeit without the spectacle, and he still got promoted in both scenarios.