Sunday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Probable Pitchers |
| Syracuse | Lost, 2-1 | @ Buffalo, 1:05 p.m. |
Cole (3-1, 4.76) vs. R. Hernandez (0-1, 3.00) |
| Harrisburg | Won, 3-1 | @ Trenton, 1:00 p.m. |
Lopez (0-3, 4.13) vs. Herrera (3-2, 3.41) |
| Potomac | Won, 3-2 | vs. Frederick, 1:05 p.m. |
Valdez (3-1, 4.40) vs. Jones (1-1, 3.94) |
| Hagerstown | Won, 6-5 | @ West Virginia, 2:05 p.m. |
Baez (0-3, 5.59) vs. Agrazal (1-2, 4.45) |
Buffalo 2 Syracuse 1
• Espino (L, 1-3) 6IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 2K, HR
• De Los Santos 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Goodwin 2-4, SAC, 2B
• Ryan 2-5, RBI
Syracuse capitalized on a passed ball to break up the shutout with a two-out single by Brendan Ryan, but couldn’t get the equalizer from Brian Goodwin as Buffalo held on for a 2-1 win. Paolo Espino took the loss despite a quality start of two runs on four hits and two walks over six innings. Abel De Los Santos and J.C. Gutierrez each turned in a scoreless inning to keep thing close. Ryan and Goodwin combined for four of the Chiefs’ eight hits as Syracuse left on 10 runners total and went just 1-for-8 with RISP.
Harrisburg 3 Trenton 1
• Mapes (W, 5-1) 6IP, 6H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 1K
• Suero (H, 3) 2IP, 2H, 0R, BB, 2K
• Webb 2-4, BB, RBI
• Soto 1-3, R, 2B, 2BB, RBI
Tyler Mapes won for the fifth time in six starts as the Sens tripled up the Thunder, 3-1. Mapes gave up the lone Trenton run on six hits and two walks while striking out one. Wander Suero worked around two hits and a walk over two scoreless innings for the hold while Bryan Harper put up the final goose egg in the 9th for the save. Veterans Brendan Webb and Neftali Soto both reached base three times and drove in a run to lead the Harrisburg offense, which collected nine hits and five walks.
Potomac 3 Frederick 2
• Reyes 5+ IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 7BB, 1K
• Sanchez (W, 1-0) 3IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K, 2-0 IR-S
• Carey 2-3, R, BB, RBI
• Mejia 2-3
It was a Fitbit® game Last Night in Woodbridge.
Hagerstown 6 West Virginia 5
• J. Rodriguez 4IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 2K, 4WP
• Pantoja (W, 4-0) 2⅓ IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 0K
• Peterson (SV, 4) ⅔ IP, 2H, 0R, BB, 0K, WP, 1-1 IR-S
• Gutierrez 3-5, R, 2B, 2RBI
• Sagdal 2-3, 2R, HR, BB, 2RBI
• Wiseman 1-3, R, 2BB, CS
The Suns rallied from 4-2 down with three runs in the final two innings and survived a late surge from the Power to win, 6-5. Jefry Rodriguez was jolted for four runs on four hits and two walks over four innings. He struck out two but was charged with four wild pitches (Jakson Reetz was catching). The win went to Jorge Pantoja with a run charged on one hit and one walk over two and a 1/3rd innings. Tommy Peterson wobbled through the ninth, giving up two hits and walking a batter while getting the last two outs to get credit for his fourth save. Kelvin Gutierrez went 3-for-5 with two RBI while Ian Sagdal singled, walked, and homered to pace the ten-hit Hagerstown offense.
Drew Ward was only 1-3 with a walk, as his OPS plummeted to .964
Victor Robles showed he’s human Saturday.
It was a good night for 30th-rounders, Mapes and Pantoja. Pantoja had a forgettable 5.84 ERA with the GCL club last year after the draft, but he somehow showed enough to skip Auburn and now has an 0.68 ERA and 0.75 WHIP at Hagerstown. I guess we should start paying attention to him. I don’t think anyone knows what to make of Mapes. He just continues to defy expectations. He doesn’t have “prospect” stuff, but he keeps getting guys out.
Sagdal is going to start demanding some notice soon as well. He’s hitting a lot better across the board than he did last summer at Auburn. Good to see another strong night from Gutierrez as well.
Good intel on Pantoja. Don’t know him at all but from what you write they found a fixable flaw with him. Someone to watch.
The most compelling point on the ascendance of vanVossen, Pantoja, and Avila is that there are several pitchers who remain in XST and who have not yet been bumped up from Auburn (and GCL), despite more impressive credentials to date. That may reflect on their talent — or other considerations like length of season (Watson) or English proficiency (Valerio). But when one considers that Avila is in the starting rotation and Crownower is not, that Grant Borne is still in XST as a college product, something is up on the talent front. The comparable on Pantoja is Mooney, the Maryland reliever, and Harmening, who started well and also was a college product.
We like to engage in the “who gets promoted” discussion here. Luke made the point, and it is an important one, that assuming Robles gets developed as a CF, there really is nowhere for him to be promoted to right now. The Nats have a legitimate jam in the pipeline right now that may contribute to assets in an Andrew Miller/Chapman or Trout trade. Consider that above Robles, everyone is excelling: Stevenson-Bautista-Goodwin. And also consider that Perkins is enthusiastically regarded within the system and that there are DSL talents graduating to GCL, and the Nats have not yet drafted. Clearly the system has a lot of leadoff CF types with lots of skills.
So I don’t see movement on the Robles front as quickly as merit might otherwise push. I do see the key upward mobility place to be 3B. When Ward goes to AA, if he continues to produce, and Gutierrez (or Schrock) goes to Potomac, we finally get Anderson Franco taking up the corner at Hagerstown. Hopefully the Nats get a better sense of whom they have in him, and in Reetz and the other young catchers, before their three high picks in June.
Remember that the Nats are making a big international splash this year come July, and the top players are all middle infielders (for now). So, however, was Michael Taylor.
Good times.