Last Night In Woodbridge
Matt Purke evened up his won-loss record at 3-3 as the P-Nats cut down the Keys, 6-2.
The 23-y.o. southpaw gave up both Frederick runs on four hits and a walk while striking out three for his second quality start in his last three starts, and the second time he’s gone six frames for Potomac.
While neither dominant nor ineffective, Purke got the job done by working off the fastball and throwing strikes… but not gunning for the K with his breaking stuff or trying to get batters to chase. He retired the leadoff batter in three of six innings and and got two diving catches by his corner outfielders — Brandon Miller in the 3rd, Randolph Oduber in the 6th — to end the inning in dramatic fashion.
Offensively, the P-Nats middle of the order carried the night. Frederick’s Brady Wager had a no-hitter and a 1-0 lead through three innings but lost it on Adrian Nieto’s line-drive single off the leaping glove of Keys SS Jerome Pena to lead off the 4th. Brandon Miller extended his hit streak to 15 games with a double down the left field line while Kevin Keyes tied it with a single to center. The 4-5-6 combo of Nieto, Miller, and Keyes would combine for six hits, three doubles, four runs, and three RBI on the night.
Potomac rallied for three in the 4th and posted a picket fence in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings to build a 6-2 lead. Veteran relievers Rafael Martin and Colin Bates finished out the game with three scoreless to nail down the “W” for Purke.
With the win, Potomac improves to 30-20 in the second half and holds a 7½ game lead over second-place Wilmington in the Carolina League North. The three-game series continues tonight with a matchup of Paul Demny (0-1, 5.06) vs. Zach Davies (7-5, 3.41).
If the P-Nats win both halves, does that mean they get to play the entire playoffs at home?
Yes. That’s the benefit in the best-of-three first round, which IMO, is too short. If they make it to the Finals, they’ll host Games 1 and 2. The Carolina League alternates HFA every year, giving the Northern Division Games 3,4,5 in even years, 1 & 2 in odd years.
MillerTime!
Keyes hitting since BM up!!
Off topic, but Nats finally made a “big splash” on the international front by signing the 29th ranked best free agent (Anderson Franco) for $900,000.
Saw the signing note on MLBTradeRumors. One thing I took out of it was that some scouts thought that Franco could turn out to be the best player in the 2013 International class. Keeping my fingers crossed!!!!
Overplayed for a international player!
6’3″ and 190 and only 16. Wow. Does he know Bosch? Sure his name will be on a list one day too. If you doubt me, just look at the list of names of those caught so far. No one has more incentive to juice than these guys from such poor countries. And Victor Conte just last night told the world how dumb you have to be to be caught given the ineptitude of the MLB policy and drug testing. He said in his opinion 50% of all MLB’rs are still juiced throughout the year and especially the off season when only 5% of the players are tested.
Blah, blah, blah.
Then surely you’d have an annual offseason failure rate of 2.5%?
Also, he sounds like a shrimp compared to a 6’3″ 205 lb. 16 year old Bryce Harper: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1156215/
Ok, John and Will, you are both right. I think I was having a really bad day at work and needed more coffee. I will give the kid a shot. I think I am also still upset over Johnny Bench getting his catcher homer numbers passed by some guy named Piazza. I will try to focus more on the positive side of our prospects here in Potomac since that is why our good man Luke created this site.