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Thursday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Probable Pitchers
Syracuse Lost, 7-4 vs. Lehigh Valley,
6:35 p.m.		 Long (4-5, 4.18) vs.
Eshelman (9-3, 2.37)
Harrisburg Won, 6-5 vs. Akron,
6:30 p.m.		 G. Ross (5-3, 6.26) vs.
Esparza (5-5, 5.08)
Potomac Lost, 5-2 @ Lynchburg,
6:30 p.m.		 Sharp (2-2, 5.33) vs.
McKenzie (11-6, 3.57)
Hagerstown Lost, 6-4 vs. Delmarva,
7:05 p.m.		 B. Hill (0-1, 5.54) vs.
Seabrooke (3-8, 4.61)
Auburn Won, 3-2
(11 inn.)		 vs. West Virginia,
7:05 p.m.		 Crowe (0-0, 2.45) vs. TBD
GCL Nationals OFF DAY vs. GCL Mets,
12:00 p.m.

Lehigh Valley 7 Syracuse 4
• Cole (L, 4-5) 6⅔ IP, 10H, 5R, 5ER, BB, 8K; 1-1, SAC
• Bautista 0-4, RBI
• Stevenson 1-4, R
• Skole 0-1

Chiefs pitchers struck out 15 and gave up 15 hits in a 7-4 loss to the IronPigs. Roster move: SS Bengie Gonzalez placed on the 7-Day DL.

Harrisburg 6 Akron 5
• T. Hill 7IP, 7H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 9K, HR
• Self (W, 4-2) 1IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 1K
• Marmolejos 2-5, R, 2B, RBI
• Joseph 2-5, R, CS
• Hernandez 1-4, R, BB, 2RBI

Harrisburg rallied from a 5-0 deficit with three in the 8th and three in the 9th, capped off by Yadiel Hernandez’s two-out, two-run homer. Taylor Hill gave up his 27th in the 3rd and two runs total on seven hits over seven innings while striking out a career-high of nine. Derek Self got the “W” as the pitcher of record while working around a walk in the 9th. Jose “Orange” Marmolejos and Corban Joseph both went 2-for-5 with a run scored to lead the Senators offense.

Lynchburg 5 Potomac 2
• Rodriguez (L, 3-3) 4IP, 2H, 3R, 2ER, 5BB, 3K
• Peterson 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Noll 1-3, R, 3B, RBI
• Reetz 1-4, R, 2K, PB, PO

Potomac took another circle ’round the drain with a 5-2 loss to Lynchburg, which reduced its tragic number to two with five to play. Jefry Rodriguez made it through only four innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on two hits and five (5) walks while striking out three for his third Carolina League loss. Mariano Rivera gave up the final two Hillcats runs over three innings before Tommy Peterson threw a scoreless 8th. Jake Noll tripled and scored a run while Jakson Reetz scored the other as the P-Nats were held to just five hits total while striking out 13 times. Roster move: RHP Luis Reyes placed on the 7-Day DL.

Delmarva 6 Hagerstown 4
• Braymer 6IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 6K
• Barnett (L, 1-1) 3IP, 4H, 3R, 1ER, 0BB, 2K
• Perkins 1-3, R, 2BB, 2SB (30, 31), E(8)
• Corredor 1-3, R, 2BB, RBI

Likewise for the Suns, who dropped their third straight and 13th out of their last 17 with a 6-4 loss to the Shorebirds. Ben Braymer turned in a quality start of three runs (two earned) on three hits and two walks over six inning with six K’s. The loss went to Jake Barnett with three runs coughed up in the 7th and four hits total over three innings. Aldrem Corredor and Blake Perkins both singled once and walked twice to lead the Hagerstown offense, which was just 3-for-14 with RISP and left on 12 baserunners.

Auburn 3 Williamsport 2 (11 inn.)
• Romero 5IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 7K
• Chu (BS, 1; W, 1-1) 3IP, 4H, 1R, 0ER, BB, 2K, WP
• Ja. Johnson (SV, 1) 1IP, 1H, 0R, BB, 0K
• Mergeildo 2-5, 3K
• Upshaw 1-2, 2R, 2BB, SB(9)

Despite committing four errors, which led to two unearned runs, Auburn got the winning run in on a wild pitch for a 3-2 win in extra innings. Seth Romero shut out Williamsport for five innings on one hit while striking out seven. Romero’s 2-0 lead went up in smoke with unearned runs off Dan Butler in the 7th and Gilberto Chu in the 8th. Chu was credited with the blown-save-win while Jared Johnson survived the fourth Doubledays error while giving up a walk and a hit in the bottom of the 11th to earn the save.

GCL Nationals – OFF DAY
The G-Marlins won to postpone the G-Nats’ celebration of the GCL East title, which can be clinched today with a win vs. the G-Mets or a G-Marlins loss.

21 Commments

  1. David Freitas makes the big leagues at age 28, goes 1-3 with a double and RBI.

    good for him.

  2. Cole is getting clobbered harder in his AAA starts than in his MLB ones. Dusty pretty much said yesterday that the big club likely will go to a six-man rotation in September. It will be interesting to see whether Cole or Fedde gets those starts.

    Good to see the Seth Romero we thought we drafted show up. Too bad it’s too late to get him a couple of starts at Hagerstown. Most of that is Boras’s fault for holding him out so long.

    1. I’m not sure we can blame Scott Boras for Romero, who has a history of lax conditioning, not being activated until late July.

    2. According to Chelsea Janes, Cole isn’t eligible to be brought back up by the Saturday start that is listed as TBA, so she assumes it will be Fedde.

  3. Robles left Monday’s game after 3 at bats, and has not played since. Anyone know the extent of his injury (assuming that’s the explanation)?

    Romero is just getting ramped up and the minor league season ends this weekend. Guessing the Nats felt it would be better for him to work at their West Palm facility rather than in the AZ Fall League. Either way he will be pitching through October. Maybe he can pitch to Bryce when he is rehabbing over the next few weeks.

    1. Mick Reinhard @mayflies said Robles got hit in the knee on Monday night and was hobbling around the Sens clubhouse after the game. He was supposed to just miss one game but so far it’s been two.

  4. I know it requires a 40-man move, but Yadiel Hernandez seems to be holding his own in AA, I wonder if he gets a cup of coffee in September simply because of his age and experience playing in Cuba. Seems like it would be nice to know what he can offer for depth in the OF before negotiating anything with JW this winter.

    1. As I see it, the Nats have one relatively simple 40-man move they can make: move Gott to the 60-day DL. However, Glover is on the 60-day, and if he’s coming back this season, he would need a 40-man spot. (Drew is also on the 60-man, but it’s sound more and more like he isn’t coming back. I doubt anyone is pining to get Raburn back, either.) So I suspect they’re saving the Gott move for if/when Glover can come back.

      Beyond that move, you get into the DFAs. Voth would seem the most likely candidate. In fact, I have a hard time coming up with a #2 behind him. If they got desperate, they could just release someone likely not to be on the playoff roster, like De Aza (who they need until Goodwin comes back). And if they DFA Voth, they’d be faced with the decision of whether to add him back right after the playoffs.

      That’s a very round-about way to say that while I’d like to see what Hernandez and Suero could do in September, there’s not an easy way to see them getting on the 40-man.

      1. Voth is not going to be signed by another organization , it feels pretty safe to remove him from the 40 man. But I do agree with your thoughts, a far cry from the 2006-2009 period where there were more to get rid of than to keep!

        1. On the contrary, Voth most likely would be signed by another organization since he’s young as is still considered a prospect. There are plenty of teams out of contention who would be happy to use garbage September playing time to see if they can “fix” him. No way Rizzo takes that risk, especially with the shortage of decent arms in the upper minors.

          1. I would like to Suero called up, but I doubt that the Nats are willing to DFA anyone on their 40 man roster. The Nats are about to be overstocked with OFs (Kendrick, Werth, MAT, Goodwin, Stevenson, De Aza, Bautista, Harper, even Difo and possibly Lind) most of whom will need at-bats to get ready for post-season.

            There is no chance that the Nats are going to make a roster move so that Hernandez get 4 pinch-hit at bats before the end of the season. IMO, it’s unlikely they will call-up Marmolejos even though that would not require a roster mover as there are just not at bats to give with so many players returning from injury.

            If the Nats simply just activate players off the 10 day DL (Madson, Romero, Goodwin, Harper), and then recall the players from Cuse that were on the active roster in the last month (Fedde, Cole, Adams, Severino, Sanchez, Stevenson, Bautista), they would have a roster of 36 players (that doesn’t even count Glover, Drew or Raburn who the Nats could activate off the 40 man roster). That’s too many to play and more than most teams have active in September. Barring injuries, just don’t see any callus to the active roster other than the guys that have already played this year.

          2. I do think “Orange” gets his cup of coffee, but just guessing. In some past seasons, the Nats haven’t called up nearly as many guys as we thought they would.

    2. Yadiel has been a shrewd move.
      I will not bring up the winter time need to add R/R outfielder FAs since the org likes to use all assets such as infielders to be outfield depth like Beckwith , Norfolk( lol) , etc etc ..

      1. Believe that clinches a playoff spot. The only MiLB team in the Nats organization to qualify for the post-season.

        1. Now the upper balcony in the old theatre house can stop the cat calls about lame Auburn squads because next season could be fun. Or some kids just jump to hags …

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