For eight innings, there was a Star Trek convention on the Pfitzner stadium scoreboard — nothing but zeroes.
Austin Voth, who actually looked a little shaky early, did nothing to discourage the folks who want to Rhinehart him to Harrisburg with another seven scoreless innings. After giving up a 1st-inning single to Raul Mondesi and walking Jared Schlehuber in the 2nd, all he did is mow down the next 16 batters — striking out the side in the 4th.
The problem was, Wilmington’s Jonathan Dziedzic was nearly as good. Not as dominant, with four hits and a walk, but matched Voth zero for zero (Trekker for Trekkie?) until this became a battle of the bullpens.
Ian Dickson came on in the 8th and extended the retired batters streak to 19. Wilmington countered with veteran Blake Wood, who retired Randolph Oduber on a tapper back to the mound, then gave up a wall-scraping double to Khayyan Norfork.
Except Norfork missed first base, which Wilmington appealed so successfully that it didn’t even show up in the official box score play-by-play*.
* Not sure who to blame for that, but I haven’t seen something that egregious since the ’90s when an entire homestand was “rained out” during a drought in southern New Hampshire.
As you’ve no doubt inferred from the picture above, things fell apart rapidly thereafter. Estarlin Martinez tapped out to end the 8th. Wilmington led off the 9th with a single, got a sacrifice turned into a single, then a walk to load the bases. A sacrifice fly and a double brought ’em all in for the 3-0 lead and eventual final score.
Potomac went in order in the 9th to lose for the fourth time in five games and fall out of 1st place, a 1/2 game behind Wilmington. The next six are on the road against the Salems, three in Virginia, three in North Carolina before the P-Nats return next Friday for six against the Mudcats and Pelicans.