Perhaps it was just one big inning, but they’ve been fewer and farther between in the second half as the fourth-place P-Nats beat up on the fifth-place Keys for a 9-5 win.
Early on, it looked like Ben Braymer might repeat his previous outing last Sunday, pinballing from crafty soft-tosser to meatball chef from batter to batter, as he gave up two sharp singles in between three flailing strikeouts. He would settle down in the 2nd and 3rd but then Frederick got to him in the 4th for its first run on another two singles before Braymer got some help from veteran David Masters who ranged up the middle to prevent a third single, instead turning a 6-B-3 DP to end the inning.
As it often does, the defensive gem carried over in the bottom half of the innings, with Masters starting the rally with a one-out walk, his second of the game, and then a sequence of four straight hits – along with two errors, though neither would have truly mattered as Rhett Wiseman launched his 17th HR with one out to make 5-1 and Nick Banks connected on a two-out double to make it 9-1.
Buoyed by the big lead, Braymer worked around a single in the 5th but then ran into trouble in the 6th with two doubles and two more singles before he finally got a popup to end it. While technically a quality start, it was still nine hits over six innings for the southpaw but good enough for him to earn a win.
Not that a rehabbing Koda Glover didn’t make things interesting. Sure, he looked the part, but this was a de facto spring training outing and everyone and their grandmother knew Glover would be throwing mostly fastballs. Frederick sat on ’em and racked up five more hits over the next inning and 2/3rds, including a two-run HR to make the game look closer than it should have been.
On the other hand, the P-Nats bats went dead after the 4th – aside from Jakson Reetz, who doubled in the 5th and singled in the 7th for a 3-for-3 night. They would finish with just 10 hits, six less than Frederick.
The win improved Potomac to 8-15 in the second half and back to .500 overall (45-45) as they get Stephen Strasburg for another rehab outing this afternoon for Game Three of this four-game series.