Potomac fell behind early, the offense couldn’t get it going, and the bullpen was uneven in a 5-1 loss to Salem.
It seems like a broken record for the P-Nats, who continue to lose games in bunches. Their current losing streak is four games, and they’ve lost three or more eight times thus far.
Reynaldo Lopez got the start last night and was both wild and uneven. Much has been made about his velocity, but it bears repeating because it is still misunderstood: it doesn’t matter how hard you throw if you’re not throwing strikes.
Lopez threw an inordinate amount of breaking pitches compared to previous starts. The good news is that he broke off some really nice ones, helping him to fan five. The bad news is that he had tremendous difficulty locating his fastball and was seemingly behind nearly every batter last night.
The result? Salem was able to sit on that mid-90s fastball and tee off for seven hits, including two doubles and moonshot HR over the left field wall. He would give up four runs and walk two over five innings and suffer his seventh loss.
Offensively, Potomac wasn’t up to snuff as they were able to get runners on early, but hit into three double plays in the first four innings. Were it not for Salem’s defensive struggles (two passed balls, a throwing error) and errant pitching (wild pitch, hit batsman), Potomac would have likely been shut out as they managed just five hits total.
The two teams continue the series tonight with a matchup of Ian Dickson (1-0, 2.50) versus Salem’s Daniel McGrath (1-4, 3.86)