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Sunday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Probable Pitchers
Syracuse Lost, 4-3 (10 inn.) vs. Gwinnett,
1:05 p.m.		 Treinen (6-1, 3.16) vs.
Northcraft (0-4, 6.66)
Harrisburg Won, 3-0 vs. New Hampshire,
2:00 p.m.		 Espino (4-3, 4.11) vs.
Copeland (6-7, 4.04)
Potomac Won, 3-2 vs. Carolina,
6:05 p.m.		 Silvestre (1st A+ start of ’14) vs.
Baker (1-1, 4.66)
Hagerstown Lost, 6-5 vs. Greenville,
5:05 p.m.		 Mooneyham (2-0, 3.86) vs.
Garcia (0-1, 7.11)
Auburn Won, 7-1 vs. Jamestown,
5:05 p.m.		 Dickey (0-1, 9.00) vs.
Minarik (1-3, 5.34)
GCL Nationals Lost, 5-1 OFF DAY N/A
DSL Nationals Lost, 4-3 OFF DAY N/A


Gwinnett 4 Syracuse 3 (10 inn.)
• Laffey 6IP, 10H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 1K
• Cedeno (BS, 3; L, 4-1) 2IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 4K, HR
• E. Perez 3-4, R
• Burriss 2-4, R, BB

Revenge was sweet for former Chief Atahualpa “Huapa-Time” Severino, and one-time P-Nats closer. Gwinnett jumped out to a 2-0 lead over starter Aaron Laffey in the 1st, but Laffey righted the ship and gave up nothing else during his six innings of work. A Steven Souza three-run clout in the 3rd that scored Emmanuel Burriss and Eury Perez looked like it would be enough. Sean Kazmar, apparently the Bravest Brave, stole home off Syracuse southpaw Xavier Cedeno after leading off with single, advancing to second on another single, and advancing to third on a ground out to by Jose “No Jorge” Constanza in the 9th. Cedeno later gave up the losing run in the 10th on a Christian Behthancourt solo homer to left. Left-Handed One Out Guy (LOOGY) Severino of Gwinnett became a winner and Left Handed Two Outs Guy when he induced a line out by Will Rhymes to complete the 9th and began the 10th with a ground out by Greg “Grinding Souldrmmer’s Gears” Dobbs. Juan Jaime slammed the door and struck out the final two Chiefs to record his sixteenth save.

Harrisburg 3 New Hampshire 0
• McGregor (W, 1-1) 6IP, 3H, 0R, BB, 2K
• Benincasa (SV, 4) 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Martinson 2-3, R, BB, RBI
• Ramsey 2-4, 3B

While Mike Rizzo might have preferred more than just two strikeouts, winner Scott McGregor stymied the New Hampshire Fisher Cats for six shutout innings. Caleb Ramsey tripled in the home half of the first, and Harrisburg subsequently got the only run it would need on a Jose Lozada sacrifice fly. Jason Martinson decided he wants to get on Souldrummer’s “Good, Bad like Michael Jackson, and The Most Interesting Man on the Senators.” He continued his hot July by extending the lead to 2-0 with a solo shot in the 2nd and adding a single that contributed to a third run in the 4th. Paul Demny pitched two shutout innings for his second hold, and Robert Benincasa pitched a scoreless 9th for his fourth save. The lack of earlier strikeouts by McGregor allowed Ric Flair to shout one of his loudest “WOOOOOS!” of the season when the game ended in a whiff.

Potomac 3 Carolina 2
• Dickson 5⅔ IP, 8H, R, ER, BB, 4K, WP
• Encarnacion (W, 2-3) 3⅓ IP, 5H, R, ER, 2BB, 3K, WP, 1-0 IR-S
• McQuillan 2-4, R, HR, 2RBI
• Pleffner 2-3, BB

Mike McQuillan drove in the first and the last run for Potomac as they walked off with a 3-2 win over Carolina despite being outhit 13-6. Starter Ian Dickson scattered eight hits over five and 2/3rds innings for just one run. He walked one and struck out four. Pedro Encarnacion got the win, though he let in the tying run in the top of the 9th. McQuillan launched a solo shot in the bottom of the 2nd and singled in Stephen Perez, who led off the bottom of the 9th with his second walk and took second on a Randolph Oduber sacrifice. Perez’s first walk plated Tony Renda to give Potomac a 2-1 lead in the 6th.

Greenville 6 Hagerstown 5
• Estevez IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 3BB, 4K, HBP
• Cooper (L, 7-3) 4IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, K
• Wooten 3-5, 2B, 2RBI
• Bautista 3-5, 2R, RBI

A 4-0 lead wasn’t enough “For The Weekend” as the Drive edged the Suns, 6-5. Wirkin Estevez gave up two-spots in the 3rd and 4th innings after cruising through the first two innings unscathed to finish with four runs allowed on four hits and three walks over four innings. Andrew Cooper took the loss with the final two runs let in over his four innings of relief. John Wooten and Rafael Bautista both went 3-for-5 and combined for two runs scored (Bautista) and two RBI (Wooten) but the Hagerstown lineup struggled in the clutch, going just 3-for-14 and left on 11 baserunners.

Auburn 7 State College 1
• Van Orden (W, 1-3) 5IP, 4H, R, ER, 0BB, 3K, HR
• Torres (H, 1) 3IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 3K
• Gardner 3-4, R, 2B
• Gordon 2-5, 2R, SB
• Marmolejos-Diaz 2-5

The Doubledays got a little bit of revenge for the Friday-night smackdown as they ran over the Spikes, 7-1. Drew Van Orden, who suffered an eight-hit, eight-run assault on July 8th, got his first professional win with five innings of one-run ball. He walked none, fanned three, and gave up four hits, with the one run coming on a solo HR in the 4th. Jeff Gardner wasn’t “bad” as he singled twice and doubled once to lead Auburn’s ten-hit parade, followed by Garrett Gordon and “Orange” Marmolejos-Diaz, who both went 2-for-5.

GCL Cardinals 5 GCL Nationals 1
• Rivero 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Reyes 5IP, 7H, R, ER, 0BB, 2K
• Plouck (l, 1-1) 1IP, 3H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 0K
• Guzman 1-4, 2B
• R. Encarnacion 2-4, CS

The G-Cards exploded for four in the 9th to hand the G-Nats a 5-1 loss to close out the week. Felipe Rivero put in a scoreless inning as a rehab starter before giving way to Luis Reyes, who turned in five innings of one-run ball with seven hits allowed and no walks. Cole Plouck took the loss with the aforementioned four-run inning. The G-Nats were held to just five hits with Randy Encarnacion the sole batter to reach base twice with a single and a double.
Roster move: LHP Felipe Rivero assigned from Harrisburg for minor-league rehab.

DSL Mets1 4 DSL Nationals 3
• W. Pena 5⅔ IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 6K, HR
• M. Pena ⅔ IP, 2H, R, ER, 0BB, 0K
• Mota 3-4, R, 2-2B, RBI
• Franco 3-4, RBI

Malvin Pena melted down with two out in the 9th, giving up a double, unleashing a wild pitch, and letting in the gamewinner with a single as the D-Mets1 took another one from the D-Nats, 4-3. Starter Wilber Pena had a one-hit shutout going into the 5th when he gave up a solo HR. He left with two outs in the 6th with a 2-1 lead but the bases loaded. Angher Cespedes blew the save in typical DSL fashion with a wild pitch, the first of three to go with three walks over the next two and a 1/3rd innings. Israel Mota and Anderson Franco both went 3-for-4 with an RBI as the D-Nats stranded nine baserunners and struck out 11 times for the game.

16 Commments

  1. Not gonna make Luke Erickson much loot and I doubt that I’ll sign up for Geico after my first go round with them, but that Game Show Host commercial was no nice that I watched it twice!

  2. Noticed Michael Taylor was not in Harrisburg’s lineup again today. Injured?

  3. Taylor probably needed two days off after
    So much game action
    this may be too premature but…
    Looking @ auburn line up lately , I wonder
    How much of that everyday lineup will be
    Lacing up for Hagerstown next spring.
    Perhaps a few bats from GCL to spice up things
    Good luck to Silvestre and mooneyham tonight

  4. There’s nobody better to give ABs to at AAA rather than Dobbs? If they were going to give Moore a day in the OF, why not give Souza some reps at 1B? Or give Skole some time up there? Seems like every AB Dobbs gets is a wasted AB.

    1. Interesting notion but the last time Souza played 1B was with Potomac in 2011: 117 games. That means Luke saw him at that spot more than a few times?

      I wonder if Skole is ready for Syracuse? Perhaps? Dobbs is there getting reps instead of right handed hitting Brock Peterson (which I guess means Brock was superfluous given the younger prospect Moore) because he has been one of the majors better pinch hitters off the bench in recent years. The Nats have yet to find a consistent, reliable, “hairy chested guy” with a left-handed bat to put on the bench either next to Davey Johnson or Matt Williams. I assume that Dobbs, given his experience, is that. Now from my perspective Skole is still a perspective starter who needs to get reps particularly since the guy is still making a come back after almost an entire season where he was idle with TJ surgery.

      1. Dobbs has more longevity/reputation than actual results as a PH IMO. He has averaged less than 10 pinch hits over the past 5 years. He had 22 pinch hits in 2008, but that was 6 years ago. I don’t care who gets those ABs, but I worry that if Dobbs has a good week or two at AAA, they are going to call him up again to bat below the Mendoza line in DC.

      2. The Nats decided that Peterson was superfluous, and traded him to the Dodgers for cash on July 1. He’s now with the Dodgers’ AAA team.

  5. Looks to me like Zach Jackson has been released out of the Syracuse pen? He was on the DL so i wonder if anyone replaces him or will it just be Matt Grace from here on out?

  6. at the last 4 games in Harrisburg , Love being there such a good vibe at the stadium even with a pretty bad team this year.
    a couple of notes (1) Taylor hurt his wrist a couple of games ago and tweaked it again on a check swing. (2) this team just has a hard time hitting. Starting pitching has been suspect all series, but game 3 was a gem . (3) Manno news , he looked really good game 2 , had people off balance and quite honestly just does not get hit, but I was told after the game that he asked for his release. Rumor is he wants to concentrate on his studies as Will PW, so Manno’s minions rejoice in his new endeavor. Not sure why , he looked very very good
    and finally (4) Minor league baseball sometimes does not have a rhyme or reason. It is not about winning but its about player development. So guys when you see a guy hit a 400 foot shot or a guy pitch a 123 inning , do not take that as success. The organization is looking to see where these guys project . Does he have the power to hit 20+ or have the endurance to thow 200 innings. Tough business and ruthless at times

    1. That’s 2 left-handed relievers lost from the upper minors in the span of a couple of days then.

    2. This is one of the best recent comments on the site. As a writeup contributor on the site, this is some helpful intel. Sad to see Manno go if he’s gonna leave, but with his college degree, he can have a great life that will pay him far more than stumping hitters in the Eastern League. This is the problem with minor league baseball. If they paid these guys even a decent wage, he’d keep playing until his arm falls off and do his college thing in the offseason. But when you’re paid an insultingly low wage given your effort and the grind of the season, you can get your baseball on destroying the local wood bat league and make bank with your excellent college degree.

  7. sorry all soak and wet from the last game just driving back home and wanted to get this on the website

  8. Might be a little premature but I wonder if they are now considering moving Rafael Martin into the closer’s role in Syracuse after a 1.2 inning save today and Cedeno’s performance yesterday? (2 inning appearance blow save and then loss)

    He has the best advanced stats for that bullpen outside of Cedeno and what I deem most important: 35% K to 5% nBB ration after facing 68 batters. Cedeno has faced 111 with a 34% K to 9% nBB ratio.

    1. Thanks for the stats. This type of question is why I need to step up my game, focus a bit more on the baseball and less on the jokes, and get to the point where the radio announcers can help us out with some behind the scenes intel. It’s really in their best interests to answer our questions since we’re likely writing for an audience that, like me, often prefers listening to minors games over the radio that involve our favorite prospects until the pennant race for the Big Club really heats up.

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