Nats Pummel Tigers, 9-1
Raudy Read and Drew Ward smacked back-to-back two-out jacks to cap off a four-run 6th as the Nats pummeled the Tigers, 9-1 for their third spring win in five games.
Joe Ross got the start and tossed two scoreless innings, a feat matched by the law firm of first two relievers, Taylor Hill and Jacob Turner. Braulio Lara ballooned his spring ERA to 21.60 with a run coughed up in the 8th to lose the shutout.
Here’s a rundown of how the watchlist position players did:
• Brian Goodwin (LF) and Matt Skole (3B) both started and both drew a walk but neither collected a hit.
• Andrew Stevenson was Goodwin’s replacement in LF and went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, but also whiffed twice.
• Rafael Bautista spelled Michael Taylor in CF but was 0-for-3.
• Ward, who subbed for Skole, struck out in his second AB.
• Read, who followed Jhonatan Solano at catcher, walked in his second PA.
• Victor Robles made his spring debut as the replacement in RF for Brandon Snyder but was hitless in two at-bats.
• Osvaldo Abreu singled in two at-bats as the second DH behind Spencer Kieboom.
The Nats return “home” but will be the visiting team when they play the Astros on Thursday. It can heard on MLB Radio and MLB.tv (Houston broadcasts).
S. Kieboom DFA’d to add Blanton to the 40-man. Might be the end of the line on the Nats’ farm for him. As desperate as teams are for catching, you would think someone will snatch him. If so, that clears the way for Read to play at Harrisburg, with Severino at Syracuse.
I was at Nats Park for that last game of the season last year when Scherzer won his 20th and SK made his only MLB plate appearance–a walk. He later scored a run to big cheers from the crowd. Hate to see him go, but two straight years of rapidly declining OPS numbers as he rose to High A and AA were pretty telling.
Maybe LeCroy will use read @ 1b andDH
With catching glut
Robles Abreau Davidson Page
Carey to sens April17??
That would be pretty aggressive…. Odds are better for High-A for almost all of them, I would have thought….
Abreu had a full season at Potomac plus AFL and should be ready for promotion. Robles, Davidson, and Page were all mid-season promotions to Potomac and might be seen as needing more seasoning. Page in particular struggled at Potomac, so I assume he’ll be back there, if he’s back at all. Carey hit .209 at Potomac and is now 25. That combination of numbers isn’t promising.
Robles clearly has some baseball-skills learning to do and could benefit from a few more months in Woodbridge. There’s also the issue of the CF conga line, as Bautista figures to be at Syracuse and Stevenson at Harrisburg.
I had speculated here several weeks ago that perhaps Davidson might move up to play 2B at Harrisburg, as Mejia doesn’t seem to be on the same trajectory as Abreu. I’m not particularly excited about Abreu and his 108 K’s and 21 E’s, either, but with so little middle infield depth in the organization, he’s moving up.
When Robles is ready for promotion, I could see Stevenson being bumped up to AAA and Bautista moving to one of the corner positions. Robles and Stevenson are potential future starting centerfielders, whereas the light hitting Bautista profiles as a 4th OF at best.