Last Night in Woodbridge
The score — Wilmington 4 Potomac 3 — seemed closer than the game actually was.
The Blue Rocks got to Jefry Rodriguez for three runs early, dinging the 23-y.o. for one in 1st on a pair of cheap singles, a walk, and a sacrifice fly, then a two-run bomb in the 3rd.
Meanwhile, Wilmington’s Emilio Ogando shut down the Victor Robles-less lineup on two hits and two walks on the first two passes, with just one runner making it into scoring position (David Masters, who led off with a single to left, took second on wild pitch, and went to third on a flyout to right).
After Rodriguez gave up back-to-back two-out doubles to in his sixth and final inning, the P-Nats answered in the bottom half via their unsung offensive threat, Taylor Gushue. The 23-y.o. “guy we got from the Pirates for Christopher Bostick” drilled a two-run HR (his fourth, which leads the Carolina League) to cut the score in half.
Two innings later, the switch-hitting backstop came through again with another clutch hit, a single up the middle to plate Telmito Agustin for Potomac’s third run and his 12th (yes, league-leading) RBI.
Southpaws Matt Crownover and R.C. Orlan blanked the Blue Rocks over the final three innings, but the P-Nats went in order in the 9th, including strikeout nos. 10 and 11 to push their season total to 88 in eight games.
The four-game series continues tonight with a matchup of Joan Baez (0-0, 6.23) vs. A.J. Puckett (0-1, 1.80).
Luke, how does Gushue look defensively? Is this guy legit? I know you’ve only gotten to see him for a couple of games. His career high for homers is eight, and he is repeating the A+ level. He may force the Nats to do something with Spencer Kieboom to see what Gushue can do at AA. (I assume Read is safe since he’s three years younger than Kieboom.)
From what I understand, he’s not very good a throwing out runners; the Blue rocks haven’t run much these two games, so I can’t comment on what I haven’t seen. Being better a blocking pitches and receiving than Raudy Read is like being taller than Peter Dinklage, so we can’t really praise him for doing the first five letters of the job description (catcher).
Thanks. He’s definitely become one to watch.
Luke, are we still seeing the two starter per evening evidenced by J-Rod followed by Crownover??
Happy Easter one and all!
No, there’s been quite a few starters pushed to the ‘pen early. But I’m not seeing the piggyback system, which usually has guys alternating between starting and relieving and pitching every four days or so.