Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Probable Pitchers |
| Syracuse | Lost, 9-3 | vs. Rochester, 12:00 p.m. |
Rosenbaum (1-1, 4.15) vs. Diamond (0-2, 15.00) |
| Harrisburg | OFF DAY | @ Altoona, 6:30 p.m. |
Schwartz (0-2, 7.62) vs. Dodson (0-1, 2.53) |
| Potomac | Won, 6-5 | @ Lynchburg, 6:05 p.m. |
Mooneyham (1-1, 2.38) vs. Parsons (1-1, 3.45) |
| Hagerstown | OFF DAY | @ Augusta, 7:00 p.m. |
Pivetta (2-1, 4.38) vs. Jones (0-1, 3.00) |
Rochester 9 Syracuse 3
• Roenicke (L, 0-2) 3IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 2K
• Delcarmen 1⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Goodwin 2-2, R, 2B, 2BB
• Komatsu 0-2, BB, SF, RBI
The Chiefs’ modest three-game win streak was halted with a 9-3 loss to the RedWings. Spot starter Josh Roenicke was pounded for four runs on six hits and two walks over just three innings. Brian Goodwin extended his hit streak to 10 games with a single and a double, and also drew two walks, pushing that tally to 12 in 16 games. The rest of the lineup managed just two hits and a walk, capitalizing on an error, a hit batsman, and a wild pitch to score twice in the 7th while Erik Komatsu plated Goodwin’s leadoff double in the 9thg with a sacrifice fly in the 9th. RHP Warner Madrigal placed on the 7-Day DL with a calf injury to make room for OF Steve Souza on Chiefs 25-man roster.
Harrisburg — OFF DAY
The Senators complete their six-game road trip with a three-game series against the Curve in Altoona in a battle between the fifth- and sixth-place teams in the Eastern League’s Western division.
Potomac 6 Lynchburg 5
• Pena (W, 1-0) 5IP, 4H, 2R, ER, BB, 2K
• Self (H, 1) 2IP, 0H, 0R, BB, K
• Oduber 2-4, RBI
• Keyes 1-4, R, HR, 3RBI
Kevin Keyes’s three-run homer, his fourth in seven days, powered a four-run 4th as the P-Nats defeated the Hillcats, 6-5 and took sole possession of 1st place in the Carolina League North Division. Starter Ronald Pena earned his first win but fell one inning short of the six innings required to turn in the team’s first quality of start of 2014. Instead, he game up two runs over five frames on four hits and a walk while striking out two. Robert Benincasa pitched a shaky ninth, allowing a run on two hits but was awarded his league-leading fifth save. Randolph Oduber singled twice to lead the Potomac offense, which scored six times on just seven hits and two walks.
Hagerstown — OFF DAY
Hagerstown’s second road trip is the first of five two-team, 1,000-mile-plus road trips of the season as they’ll visit Augusta, GA for three against the GreenJackets today through Wednesday, then head north to Charleston, WV for four against the Power.
How’s Mooneyham looking this year, P-Nats fans? That ERA looks tasty.
His 6.32 FIP is a bit more indicative.
FIP, destroyer of ERA. Guess I’ve got to start looking at the advanced stats column a bit more. So what you’re saying is I should expect a final ERA somewhere in the high 3’s low 4’s? I doubt you want to speculate on that given your respect for the players. Let’s just pray that he hits 2.50 ERA today and puts that FIP where the sun don’t shine.
FIP is what it is – a measure of how well a pitcher does independent of his defense by measuring the three true outcomes (BB, HR, K). Right now, it’s early so you can see some really wild swings and exceptions (e.g. Nick Lee, 13.06 ERA, 2.80 FIP). Over the course of a season, though, it’s tends to normalize such that the difference is within a run or so. Then you look for the outliers and determine who was lucky (ERA lower than FIP) or unlucky (FIP lower than ERA).