Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Probable Pitchers |
| Syracuse | Postponed | vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 5:00 p.m. |
Roenicke (3-3, 4.24) and Delcarmen (3-2, 2.78) vs. Mitchell (0-0, 0.00) and TBD |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 6-2 | @ Akron, 7:05 p.m. |
Espino (3-3, 4.80) vs. Arias (5-2, 3.14) |
| Potomac | Won, 7-4 | @ Myrtle Beach, 7:05 p.m. |
Spann (5-1, 3.40) vs. Faulkner (4-1, 2.69) |
| Hagerstown | Postponed | vs. Lexington, 4:30 p.m. |
Pivetta (9-3, 3.57) and Giolito (2-2, 2.59) vs. Reed (2-6, 6.04) and Simmons (1-1, 6.44) |
| Auburn | Postponed | vs. Batavia, 7:05 p.m. |
Lopez (0-1, 2.00) vs. Castellanos (0-0, 3.86) |
| GCL Nationals | Lost, 5-4 | vs. GCL Marlins, 12:00 p.m. |
TBD vs. TBD |
| DSL Nationals | Lost, 2-1 | @ DSL Giants, 10:30 a.m. |
Pena (1-2, 3.71) vs. Reyes (0-0, 6.89) |
Syracuse vs. Lehigh Valley — PPD
With a doubleheader scheduled for tonight, the powers that be made the call early to scratch this one and make them up next month
with a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20th.
Richmond 2 Harrisburg 0
• Dupra (L, 1-3) 5IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, BB, 3K, HBP
• Benincasa 1IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
• Latimore 1-4, HR, RBI
• Hague 1-4, 2B, RBI
Richmond completed the three-game sweep with a 6-2 win over Harrisburg on a Wednesday matinee. Seven walks helped mask the continued futility as the Senators notched just three hits for the game and went 0-for-12 with RISP. Quincy Latimore homered to lead off the 8th and break up the string of 18 scoreless innings on offense. Brian Dupra suffered his second loss over his last three starts (fourth overall at AA), giving up four runs on six hits and a walk over five innings while striking out three.
Roster move: RHP John Simms reassigned from Potomac with no corresponding move.
Potomac 7 Myrtle Beach 4
• Schwartz (W, 1-0) 5IP, 2H, R, ER, 0BB, 2K, HR
• Mendez (SV, 5) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, K
• Renda 2-5, 2-2B, 2RBI
• Perez 2-5, R
• McQuillan 1-3, R, BB, HR, 3RBI
The P-Nats took their fifth straight and took sole possession of 1st place in the Northern Division with a 7-4 victory over the Pelicans. Blake Schwartz got his first win of 2014 as he turned in five innings of two-hit ball, allowing a leadoff homer in the 1st and a single in the 3rd to Jorge Alfaro while blanking the rest of the Myrtle Beach lineup. Tony Renda doubled twice, Stephen Perez singled twice, while Mike McQuillan went yard for his first of the season, an Earl Weaver special in the 6th that put Potomac up 5-1. The Pelicans rallied for one in the 7th and two in the 8th to make things interesting but Gilberto Mendez slammed the door with a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save.
Lexington vs. Hagerstown — PPD
Add Hagerstown to the list of gates killed by the rain on Wednesday. It does, however, make for a killer doubleheader with both Lucas Giolito and Nick Pivetta scheduled to pitch for the Suns tonight.
Auburn vs. Williamsport — PPD
The rains that washed out the Chiefs also postponed the Doubledays and Crosscutters. The game will be made up with a doubleheader on July 4th at 12 p.m. (Wait. What? No Fireworks?!)
GCL Cardinals 5 GCL Nationals 4
• A. Williams 2IP, 3H, 0R, BB, 0K
• Morales (L, 0-2) 4IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, BB, 3K
• Alvarez 3-5, 2R, 2B, 3B, RBI, CS
• Gutierrez 2-3, RBI
The G-Cards came back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to edge the G-Nats, 5-4. Sixth Rd. pick Austen Williams threw two scoreless innings in his pro debut, working around three hits and a walk. The loss was charged to Jose Morales, who recovered from the Cards’ three-run 5th to post zeroes in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings. Thomas Alvarez fell a home run shy of the cycle as he went 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored to lead the D-Nats 11-hit attack.
DSL Red Sox 2 DSL Nationals 1
• Acevedo 5IP, 5H, 0R, 3BB, 4K
• Vargas (L, 0-1) 3⅓ IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 3K
• Charlis (BS, 2) ⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, K, 2-2 IR-S
• G. Ramirez 3-4
• Guerrero 1-3, BB, 2SB
After breaking up the Star Trek convention on the scoreboard with an unearned run in the 8th, the D-Nats couldn’t repel the D-Red Sox in their final at-bat as they fell in the 9th, 2-1. Miguel Vargas walked the leadoff man to begin his fourth inning of relief, then gave up an infield single. After a sacrifice, he was lifted for Fiyeral Charlis, who struck out the first batter but Sorianoed the second as he gave up the two-run, game-winning single for his second blown save. Offensively, the D-Nats were held to just six hits, three of which came off the bat of Gilberto Ramirez (3-for-4). Roster moves: RHPs Malvin Pena, Francisco Pinto, LHP Yonathan Ramirez assigned from Washington; C Jose Cabello, LHP Jose Jimenez, RHP Angel Guillen placed on the 60-Day DL
Harrisburg is in Akron tonight, Harper will be there for the series according to the WaPo.
It may be a minor point, but why burn an option on Hill when you could have promoted Roenicke for the emergency innings eat? I can’t see how he sticks with the Nats beyond this one appearance.
Roenicke would also have required a 40 man roster move. This burns the first of three options the Nationals have on Taylor Hill, who is 25 years old. I just don’t see that as a big deal – Hill will have established himself (or not) as a major leaguer before the options become a serious issue – this is not a Bowden/Detwiler situation.
Further, given the four games in three days and the extreme bullpen mileage over the past couple of weeks Hill may well get more than one appearance. I would guess that he sticks with the team through Saturday, and possibly until Harper is activated hopefully sometime next week.
Oh, and to finish the thought, the Nationals may well have felt that Hill is simply a better pitcher than Roenicke and that outweighs the minor penalty of burning an option for him at this point.
Also: Roenicke is out of options, which means if they wanted to send him back, he’d have to clear waivers.
all good points John and Luke.
on a separate matter Randy Encarnacion on the CGL roster and yet to play seems to indicate an injury of some sorts. did I miss anything on this here?
Still leads to a pretty serious question I have? The Chiefs have now apparently lost Aaron Laffey who has been extremely effective of late as a left-handed starter (I am guessing opt out?). Before that? Taylor Hill, at least until Harper returns, Ryan Tatusko to Korea, and Blake Trienen will be held in order to start the 2nd game of the twi-night twin bill against the Cubs.
Where’s the ‘Cuse starters? Manny Delcarmen and the bullpen making the 2nd start in the Chief’s twin bill tonight? That ain’t good? It is very, very fortunate the Chiefs did not have to manage two double headers in a row!! Schedule shows no days off until the 13th of July and the All Star break.
Help us Mike Rizzo you’re our only hope! How about sending AJ Cole to upstate?
Taylor Jordan listed as still on the DL but where’s Ross Ohlendorf? He started to rehab and has disappeared?
He was removed from the Chiefs roster on May 26 and is officially on the Washington 60-day DL. I’d watch the GCL for his next appearance, presuming he’s not done for the year.
Sadly, Mike Rizzo is probably mad that Syracuse is winning so much. That means he has too much talent on the team and he wants to flip some of his MLB ready assets elsewhere for younger talent that he can develop and groom. It will be real interesting to see what happens to Souza and Taylor. Both seem to be outfielders who are passing higher draft pick Goodwin. Rizzo’s got an immense amount of options given how so many of his long range gambles (Taylor, Souza, Roark, Ward, Giolito and most importantly Rendon) are starting to pay off. I don’t know who his insiders are (probably a doctor to be named later and the Boras research department) but it’s starting to look like our Nats have discovered a few market inefficiencies and are exploiting them with ruthless abandon. How many times has a first place MLB team had a team that destroyed the GCL like those cats at Hagerstown did, generated the best record at AAA, got a potential AA MVP candidate, generated wins for Hagerstown, and doesn’t seem to be fielding a bunch of stiffs at Potomac either.
Frankly, the only tragedy that I find in the whole operation is that Rizzo is not properly acknowledging Luke Erickson and His Band of Merry Crowdsourcers for their contributions to the Natmosphere. Competing sites who shall remain nameless get a bunch of the glory, but I will always suggest folks to come to Nationalsprospects.com for #thestraightdope. And by the way, there’s only one site in the natmosphere that I write for! [drops mike]