Monday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup |
| Syracuse | Lost, 3-1 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Cancelled | @ Portland, 7:00 p.m. |
Darnell (6-4, 4.94) vs. Dillon (1-4, 6.98) |
| Potomac | Won, 5-0 | @ Salem, 11:00 a.m. |
Johnston (1-0, 5.00) vs. Houck (4-11, 4.80) |
| Hagerstown | Won, 1-0; Lost, 3-0 |
vs. Delmarva, 7:05 p.m. |
Alastre (3-5, 3.56) vs. Hall (2-5, 2.44) |
| Auburn | Lost, 3-2 (10 inn.) |
OFF DAY | N/A |
| GCL Nationals | Won, 4-3 | @ GCL Marlins, 12:00 p.m. |
Louisville 3 Syracuse 1
• Valdez (L, 3-7) 7⅓ IP, 6H, 3R, 3ER, BB, 3K, HR, HBP
• Marmolejos 0-4, K
• Ward 0-3
• Valdez 0-2
Roster moves: LHP Sammy Solis recalled to Washington; RHP Koda Glover optioned from Washington.
Harrisburg vs. New Hampshire – CNCLD
The series finale between the Fisher Cats and the Senators was cancelled as it was the final meeting between the two teams in the regular season. It’s off to Portland for three against the Sea Dogs before returning to Harrisburg on Thursday.
Potomac 5 Salem 0
• Braymer (W, 5-3) 6IP, 5H, 0R, 0BB, 4K
• Acevedo 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Banks 2-3, 2R, BB
• Agustin 2-4, R, 2B, RBI
• Mejia 2-5, 2B, 2RBI
Three Potomac pitchers combined on a five-hit, 5-0 shutout of Salem for its… wait for it… fifth straight win. Ben Braymer won for the third time in six starts since joining the P-Nats rotation. He went the first six, gave up all five Red Sox hits, walked none, and struck out four. Carlos Acevedo (2IP) and Steven Fuentes (1IP) were perfect down the stretch, each striking out one. Nick Banks reached base three times with two singles and walk and scored twice while Telmito Agustin and Bryan Mejia each had a single and a double to lead the Potomac offense.
Hagerstown 1 Lakewood 0 – GAME ONE
• Hill (W, 2-3) 6IP, 4H, 0R, 0BB, 5K
• Morse (S, 1) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Canning 1-3, RBI
• Caulfield 1-1, R, HBP
• Choruby OF assist at HP
Two Suns pitchers combined on a four-hit, 1-0 shutout in the opener. Brigham Hill won for the second time while throwing the first six and giving up all four BlueClaws hits and striking out five. Phil Morse struck out the side in the 7th, all looking, to seal the deal. Neither Suns putcher issued a walk. Hagerstown broke up the Star Trek convention in the bottom of the 6th with the help of a hit batsman and a wild pitch while Gage Canning delivered the gamewinner with a two-out single.
Lakewood 3 Hagerstown 0 – GAME TWO
• Held 4IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K, HBP
• Ja. Johnson (L, 0-2) 1IP, 2H, 3R, 3ER, BB, 0K
• Canning 2-3
• Panaccione 1-2
Sam Held no-hit the BlueClaws for four innings. Jared Johnson did not, loading the bases with one out on a hit batsman, a single, and a walk, then unloading them on double and a sacrifice fly for the eventual 3-0 loss to Lakewood. Jared Brasher shut down Lakewood in the 6th and 7th innings but Hagerstown was unable to push a runner past second base. Gage Canning had two singled while Paul Panaccione and Omar Meregildo each had one to comprise the Suns’ four-hit output.
State College 3 Auburn 2 (10 inn.)
• Vargas 3IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Stoeckinger 4IP, 1H, 0R, BB, 2K
• Y. Ramirez (BS, 1; L, 2-4) ⅔ IP, 2H, 3R, 1ER, 1BB, 1K
• Jo. Sanchez 2-3, R, BB, RBI
• Shaddy 2-5, 2B
Neither team scored until the extra inning, when Auburn broke out for two in the top of the 10th with the help of an error and Cole Daily’s first career double to take a 2-0 lead. Yonathan Ramirez came on for the save and gave up a two-bagger to score the free runner, committed an error to put runners on the corners, then gave up an infield single to score the tying run. After issuing an intentional walk to load the bases, Ramirez got a foul pop for the second out before hitting Lars Nootbaar to plate the winning run and earn the blown-save-loss.
GCL Nationals 4 GCL Astros 3
• Williamson 1⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 3K
• R. Gomez 4⅓ IP, 3H, R, ER, 0BB, 4K, BK
• F. Perez (W, 1-1) 2⅓ IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, BB, 3K, 3-0 IR-S
• Vega 3-4, 2B, BB, 2RBI
• Johnson 2-4
• Morales 2-5
Depsite running into the first out of the 9th at third base after a leadoff double, the G-Nats still managed to rally from 3-2 down as Justin Connell doubled with one out to tie and Onix Vega doubled in Connell with two out for the 4-3 G-Nats win. Ryan Williams got the look-see start as he walked two and gave up a hit over an inning and 2/3rds. He struck out three. Fray Perez stranded three while getting the last out in the 7th and pitched a scoreless 8th and 9th inning for the “W.” Vega led the 12-hit parade with three hits total, followed by Jesus Morales and Daniel Johnson, who both singled twice.
Brigham Hill just had his best professional start of his career. I thought he’d be a fast riser, but is having much more trouble than anticipated in Hagerstown. Hope this start is the first of a string of strong outings.
Agustin is picking right up where he left off. Hope he’s still here on 8/1 as I’m not convinced that Rizzo won’t try to salvage the season with futile trades.
Understand why there is concern that the Nats would lose key prospects in a trade (that is always a concern), but why are you so utterly convinced the season is lost? Philly and Atlanta are both flawed teams largely relying on starting pitching that has not proven that it can go deep in a season. Don’t see either team ending the season with win totals greater than the mid-80s.
Of course, the Nats could still peter along the rest of the way, but it’s more likely that the key players (Harper, Strasburg, Murphy, Zimmerman, even Turner) will play closer to previous form down the stretch. Nothing is ever certain, but don’t think it would responsible for Rizzo to give up on the season simply because the Nats are down 6 with 60+ games to play.
Jackson Stoeckinger seems to have figured something out after the demotion to Auburn. Three appearances totaling 12 innings there with only one earned run and three walks. Also good to see his 2017 draft classmate Brigham Hill have a strong start. Time for some of those guys besides Crowe to start stepping up.
Still not sure what to make of Ben Braymer, particularly since he’s already 24, but if he morphs into a quality lefty starter, that would be terrific.
What’s going on with Yasel Antuna? He hasn’t played in a few games. Injury?
Was sent to the DL a couple days ago.
Rhett Wiseman DNP for Potomac in their matinee today. Might he finally have gotten the bump?