Friday’s News & Notes

Columbus 8 Syracuse 4
• Voth 6IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 5K, 2HR
• Robles 0-4

The Chiefs reverted to the mean, coughing up a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th to turn a 4-3 lead into an 8-4 loss.

Harrisburg – OFF DAY
While Harrisburg is chasing Altoona for the wildcard, they’re still going to have to beat division-leading Akron sooner or later. With three games this weekend and three next weekend, sooner is probably better as the third-place Sens only have two more games left against the second-place Curve.

Potomac 3 Myrtle Beach 2
• Ross 3⅔ IP, 1H, 0R, BB, K, 2HBP, 63-39 PIT-K
• Johnston (BS, 1; W, 4-1) 4IP, 1H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 3K, HR
• Masters 3-4, R, 2B
• Mejia 1-4, R, HR

Luis Garcia’s infield single after back-to-back walks (one intentional) with two outs sent the Pelicans packing with a 3-2 loss and split of the four-game series with the P-Nats. Joe Ross made his first rehab outing north of Florida and threw 63 pitches, 39 for strikes. That got him into the 4th with one hit, one walk, and one whiff and two Victor Robles. The win went to Kyle Johnston, who blew the 2-0 advantage by coughing up a two-run HR in the 7th following his only walk, but pitched four innings total and struck out three. David Masters singled twice and doubled once while Bryan Mejia homered to lead off the game as Potomac collected six hits and six walks on the afternoon. Roster move: RHP Joe Ross reassigned from the GCL for MLB rehab.

Hagerstown 2 Lexington 0
• S. Romero 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K, 29-21 PIT-K
• C. Pena (W, 1-1) 4IP, 2H, 0R, BB, 2K, HBP, WP
• Bartow (SV, 3) 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Esthay 3-4, R, 3B, RBI
• Meregildo 3-4, R

Four Hagerstown pitchers combined on a five-hit, 2-0 shutout of Lexington in the series opener. Seth Romero surfaced to pitch two innings with one hit allowed, no walks, and three whiffs. Carlos Pena picked up the win and shocked the world (OK, maybe just us) with four innings pitched with four baserunners put on (two hits, one walk, one HBP) while fanning two. Frankie “Goes to Hagerstown” Bartow closed it out with two donuts for the save, his third. Kameron Esthay and Omer Mergildo both went 3-for-4 with a run scored to lead the Suns offense. Roster move: OF Gage Canning placed on the 7-Day DL.

Auburn 6 Mahoning Valley 1
• N. Gomez (W, 1-0) 6IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 2K
• Day (S, 2) 3IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 2K
• Perkins 1-3, R, SF, 2RBI
• Pineda 1-4, R, BB

Any doubts the Nats sent the wrong Gomez to New York were erased as Niomar threw six scoreless innings in his NYPL debut, powering the Doubledays to a three-game sweep of the Scrappers with a 6-1 victory. Gomez allowed just one and two walks while setting down two on strikes. Chandler Day sliced the lead in half when he let in a run in the bottom of the 8th but the offense got four runs back for him in the top of the 9th and he set ’em down in order in the 9th for his second save. Auburn took advantage of four errors to score six times on five hits and three walks. With the win, the Doubledays are alone in first place for the first time all season.

GCL Astros 4 GCL Nationals 3
• Strom 5IP, 2H, R, ER, BB, K
• R. Gomez (L, 3-4) 3IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 2K
• Pogue 2-3, RBI
• Matos 2-4, R, RBI

The G-Astros broke a 1-1 deadlock with three runs in the bottom of the 8th, to which the G-Nats could only get back two in the 9th for a 4-3 loss. Leif Strom got the start and spun five innings of one-run ball on two hits and a walk. Rafael Gomez took the loss, his fourth as he let in the aforementioned three runs on four hits and two walks in his third and final inning of work. Colton Pogue went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the second straight game while Wilfrido Matos notched his first multihit game since his move from the DSL as he went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.