Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez became the latest Nationals pitchers to earn weekly awards, named as the Pitcher of the Week for the Sally League and the New York-Penn League, respectively for the week of June 23-29.
Giolito, who was named to the Futures Game last week, pitched just once but threw six shutout innings in the nightcap of a doubleheader last Thursday. The Nats #1 prospect struck out a career-best nine batters while tying his season-high for innings pitched. For the season, the soon-to-be 20-year-old is 3-2 in 12 starts with a 2.30 ERA, an FIP of 3.81, and a WHIP of 1.04. In 54⅔ innings, he’s struck 61 (10.04/9IP) and walked 21 (3.46) while giving up five HRs. He’s the second Hagerstown pitcher to earn the award in as many weeks.
Lopez also pitched just once last Thursday, getting one last out (five and 2/3rds IP) and one less K (eight) but three fewer hits (zero) than Giolito in an 11-2 Auburn win. The 20-y.o. is in his third professional season and second north of Florida as he’s split time both this year and last year between the Doubledays and Suns. In three starts for Auburn, he’s 1-1 with a line of 1.23/3.15/0.89 with seven walks and 13 strikeouts in 14⅔ innings thus far in 2014.
