Last Night In Woodbridge

The offensive onslaught carried over from Wednesday as the Potomac Nationals closed out their seven-game homestand Thursday at 5-2 with a 7-4 win over the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

The P-Nats wasted no time getting things going. Kevin Keyes, who went 6-for-21 with eight walks during the week, blasted a two-out, two-run home run into the woods past the left field fence to erase an early 1-0 deficit in the first.

Two innings later, also with two outs, the linebacker first baseman drilled a single up the middle to send in Michael Taylor (again) and increase the lead to 3-1. Taylor walked in the first and been hit by a pitch in the third for a burst of five straight PAs reaching base.

In the fourth, Potomac demonstrated its newfound penchant for stringing together base hits as Adrian Nieto, Caleb Ramsey, and Adrian Sanchez each singled to load the bases while Justin Miller doubled in two to extend the lead to 5-2. Like Keyes, Miller enjoyed the home cooking with a 10-for-24 stretch with two doubles, two homers, and eight RBI for the week.

Meanwhile, Taylor Hill turned in a quality start with two runs allowed over six innings to earn his team-leading fourth win. However, three of the seven hits went for extra bases and it was the fourth start in which he gave up more hits than innings pitched — a bugaboo from last season when he allowed 161 in 139⅓ innings between Hagerstown and Potomac.

Christian Meza followed Hill and was charged with two runs on a double and two walks, with Adrian Nieto’s passed ball problems continuing as the backslow was charged with nos. 10 and 11, making the second of the two run scored in the Wilmington 7th unearned. He followed with a two-strikeout eighth.

Richie Mirowski set ’em down 1-2-3 in the ninth for his second save of the season.

The win combined with a Lynchburg loss puts the P-Nats back into a tie for first place, percentage points behind thanks to two fewer contests played by the Hillcats (21-17, .553 vs. 22-18, .550) with Frederick just a half-game back at 21-18 in the Carolina League North.

Potomac takes to the road for nine games in 10 days with a trio of three-game series against Winston-Salem, Frederick and Lynchburg as they return to the Pfitz on Memorial Day for a seven-game homestand versus Salem and the Hillcats once again. Tonight, it’s RHP Blake Schwartz (3-1, 0.82) versus Ryan Buch (0-0, 4.91 at AA).