Saturday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Probable Pitchers |
| Syracuse | Lost, 3-1 | vs. Gwinnett, 7:00 p.m. |
Laffey (11-3, 3.14) vs. Martin (6-6, 3.37) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 5-3 | vs. New Hampshire, 7:00 p.m. |
McGregor (0-1, 8.27) vs. Anderson (3-2, 4.58) |
| Potomac | Won, 11-8 | vs. Carolina, 6:35 p.m. |
Dickson (2-8, 5.61) vs. Peoples (7-7, 4.57) |
| Hagerstown | Won, 5-1 | vs. Greenville, 7:05 p.m. |
Estevez (0-0, 5.14) vs. Stankiewicz (6-7, 4.30) |
| Auburn | Lost, 17-4 | @ State College, 7:05 p.m. |
Van Orden (0-3, 9.49) vs. Gomber (0-1, 2.13) |
| GCL Nationals | Won, 6-2 | vs. GCL Cardinals, 12:00 p.m. |
TBD vs. TBD |
| DSL Nationals | Lost, 6-4 | vs. DSL Mets1, 10:30 a.m. |
Pena (1-4, 3.68) vs. Marte (4-0, 4.15) |
Gwinnett 3 Syracuse 1
• Lively (L, 0-2) 5IP, 6H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, K
• Mattheus 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Burriss 1-2, 2BB
• E. Perez 1-2, SAC, SF, RBI
Gwinnett starter Hector “Betcha Wish I Was the Other H-Rod” Daniel Rodriguez stumped Syracuse for six innings last night as the G-Braves defeated Syracuse 3-1. Syracuse starter Mitch Lively not only fell one inning short of a meager quality start, but he also gave up runs early that possibly demoralized his offense. A single and a double and a groundout in the first led to the first Gwinnett run. A single a double and two sacrifice flies pushed it to a 3-0 lead for the G-Braves in the bottom of the 4th. The Chiefs had little to do with their lone cosmetic run in the bottom of the 8th. Whatever MLBer Luis Avilan was working on wasn’t effective; a single by Greg Dobbs sandwiched between walks of Jeff Kobernus and Burriss preceded Eury Perez’s sacrifice fly. Gwinett’s Juan Jaime then shut the door with one and 2/3rd perfect innings, ending the 8th with a Tyler Moore whiff and finishing the 9th with punchouts of Destin Hood and Sandy Leon to create angst in the streets of Syracuse.
New Hampshire 5 Harrisburg 3
• Simmons (L, 2-1) 6IP, 7H, 5R, 5ER, 0BB, 7K, HBP, WP
• Manno 2IP, 1H, 0R, BB, 2K
• Vettleson 2-4, 2-2B, RBI
• Keyes 1-4, R
Manno’s Minions may be the only people satisfied by last night’s outcome in Harrisburg. While Manno stymied the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, concluding with a stifling whiff, groundout, popout perfect inning of work in the top of the eighth, his manager might have been better served to use him in some higher leverage innings. James “I’m Not Richard” Simmons gave up five runs over six innings and watched his ERA balloon to 5.68, although in his defense he did throw strikes and entertained the faithful by allowing them to shout “WOO!!!” with Ric Flair seven times for strikeouts. A two-out error by third baseman Andy “Simpson, eh?” Burns led to Harrisburg’s first two cosmetic runs in the bottom of the seventh. Drew Vettleson’s double scored Kevin Keyes to conclude an ugly night for the upper affiliates 5-3.
Potomac 11 Carolina 8
• Rauh ⅔ IP, 5H, 6R, 5ER, 2BB, 2K, WP
• Turnbull 4IP, 6H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Davis (W, 1-0) 2⅓ IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, BB, K
• Oduber 3-4, 2R, 2B, HR, 3RBI
• Ballou 2-4, R, 2B, BB, RBI
• Pleffner 2-5, 2R, 2B, RBI, SB
It looked like it was over early, but it wasn’t Last Night In Woodbridge
Hagerstown 5 Kannapolis 1
• Giolito (W, 6-2) 6IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 7K
• Webb (SV, 1) 3IP, 0H, 1R, 0ER, 3BB, 4K
• Mesa 2-4, 2R, 2B, 3SB
• Wooten 2-3, 2R, BB, HR, RBI
• C. Lopez 1-3, 2B, RBI
What a bum. Lucas Giolito gave up a leadoff single in the 1st then only retired the 18 batters in a row, seven by way of the K, to win his sixth game in a 5-1 Hagerstown win over Kannapolis. The 20-y.o. walked none and got five groundouts and six flyouts. Joseph Webb couldn’t preserve the shutout with an unearned run, but finished out the game with three hitless innings for his first save. Narciso Mesa singled, doubled, and swiped three bags from the top of the order as the Suns scored five times on just six hits and three walks.
State College 17 Auburn 4
• A. Williams (L, 0-2) 2⅓ IP, 5H, 9R, 6ER, 2BB, 0K, HR, WP
• Read 2-3
• Carey 2-3, R, 2-2B, BB, RBI
The buck didn’t stop with either Williams (Austen or Deion) as the Spikes gored Auburn for 11 unanswered runs in the first thee innings en route to a 17-4 demolition. Austen got the start and was charged with nine runs (six earned) on five hits and two walks over two and a 1/3rd innings. Deion came on in relief in the 3rd and let in one before giving up two of his own in State College’s nine-run 3rd. Raudy Read and Dale Carey both went 2-for-3 to pace the Doubledays offense.
GCL Nationals 6 GCL Cardinals 2
• Yrizarri (W, 2-1) 5IP, 4H, 0R, 2BB, 4K
• De La Cruz 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, K
• Tillero 3-4, R, 2-2B, RBI
• Aguero 1-3, R, 2B, BB, RBI
• Florentino 1-4, R, HR, 2RBI
Darryl Florentino got the party started with a two-run homer in the 2nd as the G-Nats would add on two more in the 3rd and 6th innings as they tripled up the G-Cards, 6-2. Deibi Yrizarri escaped the tag of “Bad” with five shutout innings, giving up four hits and two walks while fanning four for his second win. Jorge Tillero doubled twice and singled once to lead the D-Nats nine-hit attack.
Roster move: RHP Erick Fedde assigned from Washington.
DSL Mets1 6 DSL Nationals 4
• Acevedo 5IP, 6H, R, ER, 2BB, 5K, HBP, WP
• Morel (BS, 1; L, 2-1) 2IP, 4H, 4R, 2ER, BB, 2K, HR, 2WP
• Vilorio 2-4, 2R, HR, RBI, SB
• Rengel 2-5
The D-Mets1 scored twice in each of the 6th and 7th innings to break open a one-run game as they defeated the D-Nats, 6-4. Starter Carlos Acevedo spun five innings of one-run ball, giving up six hits and two walks while striking out five but got the no-decision. Melvin Morel took the loss with the aforementioned four runs (two earned) in two innings on four hits, including a two-run HR. The Luises combined for four of the eight D-Nat hits with Vilorio scoring twice and homering once and Rengel connecting for two singles.
I’m sorry, can someone explain the Ric Flair joke to me? I feel so lost reading these recaps sometimes …
Apparently, it’s a running gag at Metro Bank where they play a clip of the former pro wrestler’s catchphrase after strikeouts. Other places use Apu of “The Simpsons” saying “Thank you, come again!” or just the sound of old-fashioned cash register closing.
Scooter, you and your Muppets are welcome to ask for clarifications any time. Basically, you’ve got to see a game at City Isle sometime before you die. The park is beautiful, and I make one trip up there every year. Last year, I noticed that they played Ric Flair “WOOOOOOOO!” every time that a Senator struck somebody out. This is the kind of gimmick that makes minor league baseball so much fun. Even when the Senators are in the midst of a presently abysmal season, you can still hang out, drink cheap beer, watch the kids, and shout “WOOOOO!” with Ric Flair when the sorry starter records his seventh strikeout. For all I know, the starter was working on his strikeout pitch and Nationals coaches have zero problems with him getting tagged for a bunch of runs if he’s not walking people and maintaining a perfect 7 to 0 strikeout ratio. There’s a lot of inside jokes and statistics on the site, and for the most part, I feel that many of us are inside heads who have seen at least a couple of games by the affiliates and know what the in-game experience is like. I hope that my writeups are like rap-songs from the hey day of the 90s, though. There’s lots of references to insider things that few people get and you have to look up songs on Rap Genius to figure them out. You don’t have to be Nats Prospects Genius to figure things out here, though. Just read the writeups and ask questions whenever you don’t get them. We’re so desperate for comments we’ll be happy to write small novels to make sure that we answer your queries as thoroughly as possible and make you know that you’re getting great #customerservice! Any other terms that you’d like to know?
Giolito appears a bit bored in Hagerstown, but as long as he doesn’t tax himself too heavily I doubt The rZo cares too much.
Thank you, gentlemen, for the explanation.