Sammy Solis’s AA debut was one to forget.
The 25-y.o. southpaw, originally drafted in 2010, made quick work of the first three Bowie batters in the 1st — a flyout to right, a three-pitch strikeout, and weak tapper to 1st. The velocity was as advertised: low-90s, touching 94 depending on which radar gun you choose to believe.
After an infield single and a flyout, Solis seemed ready to dispatch the Baysox again in the 2nd. But then an inside-out single to right put runners on 1st and 3rd, then a sacrifice fly erased a brief 1-0 lead that had come off the bat of Cutter Dykstra with a solo shot to the [sorry, no free advertising] cheap seats in left.
A two-out double from Garabez Rosa gave Bowie the 2-1 lead and Solis rolled a grounder to end the 2nd. He mowed down the first three BaySox in the 3rd. After Adrian Sanchez hit another solo shot to left to tie things up, all Solis needed to do was respond with another goose egg.
Instead, the BaySox connected for six hits in the space of eight batters — nothing cheap, nothing weak, nothing lucky. Solis was lifted with one out in the 4th. His replacement, James Simmons was renamed Richard with a three-run blast off the roof of the Senators team well beyond the left field fence.
The final line for Solis — nine runs, eight earned, one walk, one strikeout over three and 1/3rd innings. He faced 20 batters and threw fifty-six pitches, forty-two for strikes and only went to a three-ball count on the one batter he walked (former Nats farmhand David Freitas).
As Patriot-Times beat writer Geoff Morrow tweeted, perhaps some credit goes to the Bowie offense, which leads the Eastern League in several offensive categories (H, 2B, K’s, BA, SLG%).
The Senators would not answer the BaySox eight-run 4th until the 7th, when they mounted a similar, slow-motion rally for five runs, punctuated by Matt Skole’s two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded to pull Harrisburg within four at 11-7.
Alas, Bowie answered with a pair of two-run innings in 8th and 9th and homers in both frames to make it a 15-7 final.
With the loss, Harrisburg’s quest for three wins in a row in 2014 remains unfulfilled as they fell to a 17-32 mark, second-worst in the Eastern League.