Saturday’s News & Notes
Just two wins, both short-season, for the Nats farm on Friday.
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup |
| Syracuse | Lost, 4-0 | vs. Gwinnett, 7:05 p.m. | Voth (4-8, 4.77) vs. Johnstone (0-0, 5.40) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 10-1 | vs. Trenton, 6:00 p.m. | Sharp (3-2, 4.36) vs. Foley (2-3, 3.24) |
| Potomac | Lost, 5-4 | @ Winston-Salem, 7:05 p.m. | Baez (7-8, 4.25) vs. Hansen (1st A+ start of ’18) |
| Hagerstown | Lost, 6-4 | @ Charleston, 7:05 p.m. | Hill (4-3, 3.02) vs. Contreras (0-2, 3.24) |
| Auburn | Won, 5-3 | vs. State College, 6:30 p.m. | Cate (2-2, 4.50) vs. Casadilla (1-1, 2.40) |
| GCL Nationals | Won, 10-9 | vs. GCL Astros, 10:00 a.m. |
Gwinnett 4 Syracuse 0
• Valdez 7IP, 7H, 0R, BB, 6K
• Robles 0-4, BB, OF assist at 2B
• Marmolejos 0-1 (PH)
It’s not your imagination: Robles is batting .182/.308/.212 in August thus far.
Trenton 10 Harrisburg 1
• Long (L, 4-8) 5⅔ IP, 9H, 9R, 8ER, 2BB, 5K, 3HR
• Harper 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• H. Jones 2-3, BB, SB(11)
• Collier 2-3, RBI
Harrisburg’s playoff hopes took another hit as Trenton hammered Jaron Long and the Sens for a 10-1 loss. Long gave up the first nine runs on nine hits, including three home runs (one grand slam) and two walks. He struck out five over five and 2/3rds while losing his eighth AA game. Hunter Jones and Zach Collier both went 2-for-3 to account for four of the seven hits and one (Jones) of the four walks.
Winston-Salem 5 Potomac 4
• Johnston 5IP, 2H, 4R, 2ER, 4BB, 5K, WP
• Bogucki (L, 3-2) 2IP, 4H, R, ER, 0BB, 2K, HR
• Sagdal 3-4, R
• Wiseman 2-4, R, 3B, HR(20), RBI
• Garcia 2-4, R, RBI – 5th straight multihit game (H/T Potomac PR)
The P-Nats hung a three-spot in the top of the 1st but the Dash answered with two in the bottoms of 1st and 3rd to take a 4-3 lead. Rhett Wiseman homered (#20) with one out in the 7th to tie things up but so did Winston-Salem’s Luis Gonzalez in the next half-inning to put the Dash back up 5-4. Wiseman struck again with a one-out triple in the 9th but Potomac couldn’t do Jakson or Jack as Reetz popped up and Sundberg rolled to second to end the game for a 5-4 loss. Kyle Johnston went the first five and gave up the first four runs on two hits and four walks while fanning five. A.J. Bogucki gave up the game-winner and four hits total over two innings of relief. Roster moves: RHP Jeremy McKinney placed on the 7-Day DL; OF Nick Basto activated from the 7-Day DL.
Charleston 6 Hagerstown 4
• M. Pena (L, 3-1) 5IP, 6H, 6R, 4ER, BB, 2K, WP
• Brasher 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Scudder 3-4, 2R, 2B, 2RBI
• Esthay 2-4, 2B, RBI
• Canning 2-5, R, 2B, OF assist at 2B
Charleston took advantage of two errors and a wild pitch to score six times on just six hits as Hagerstown couldn’t answer back for a 6-4 loss in the series opener. Malvin Pena lost his first Low-A game as he gave up all six RiverDogs hits and all six runs over five inning while issuing a walk and striking out two. The Jareds (Brasher and Johnson) were prefect for three innings in relief to lock down Charleston. Down 6-1 after five, the Suns offense could only get three runs back, led by Jake Scudder with two singles and a double, two runs scored and two RBI.
Auburn 5 Batavia 3
• F. Peguero (W, 4-3) 5IP, 4H, 3R, 2ER, 0BB, 3K, 2HR
• Tapani (H, 3) 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Carrillo 3-5, 2R
• Blash 2-5, 2R, HR, RBI
• Rhinesmith 2-5
Both teams homered twice, but the Doubledays were able to score without the long ball for a 5-3 win and a two-game sweep of the MuckDogs. Francys Peguero gave all up all three Batavia runs on two homers (four hits total) over five innings. He walked none and struck out three while winning his fourth game. Ryan Tapani led a trio of relievers who combined for four scoreless with two donuts for his third hold. Jamori Blash hit his 5th big fly while Pablo O’Connor went deep for the third time to lead Auburn’s 11-hit parade.
GCL Nationals 10 GCL Cardinals 9
• Strom 2IP, 6H, 4R, 3ER, 0BB, 3K, HR
• R. Gomez (W, 3-3) 5⅓ IP, 7H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, 0K, 0HR
• F. Perez (S, 2) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Chisholm 2-5, 3R, HR, 3RBI
• Franco 2-5, 2R, 3B, RBI, E
• Emiliani 2-4, R, 2B, IBB, 2RBI
The G-Nats blew an 8-6 lead in the top of the 9th then walked off in the bottom half for a 10-9 win over the G-Cards. Leif Strom got the start but was knocked for four runs on six hits over two innings. The win went to Rafael Gomez who stranded a runner to end the 4th then finished the game, allowing three runs on seven hits. Anderson Franco and Blake Chisholm opened the final frame with back-to-back singles, then moved up 90′ on a sacrifice. After the obligatory IBB to set up a DP, Anthony Peroni made the move moot with a two-run double. Chisholm also homered, scored three times, and drove in three runs. Roster moves: SS Wilfrido Matos reassigned from the DSL.
Those Yanx farmhands socked it to the Nats kids @ two levels Friday ( where is Joanne Worley to say that line from the great NBC Comedy show : sock it to me!
What is the extent of the McKinney injury or plain old DL stint ?
Basto off the DL. I wonder if brass envisions his right hand bat to help out Burg next season ?
Maybe one of the few people who were able to stand both the heat and the throngs of screaming kids might weigh in, but considering he only faced two batters on Thursday, this may be one of those times where a guy on the DL is actually hurt.
As for Basto, I seem to recall him having difficulty hitting water if he fell off a pier, so methinks there may be some better options if they decide to fortify the Sens (which I doubt they will).
Just looked up Garcia on Fangraphs and had to laugh at their at their 20/45 hit grade on him. (Of course their hit grade on Soto was 30/55. Oops!) The stat that really jumps out for Garcia is the K% of only 11.3 at Potomac, reduced from the still-excellent 15.2 he had at Hags. He’s walking very little but basically putting everything in play. BABIP is a high .355, but it’s right in line with what he posted in the GCL and at Hags. His SLG is up 68 points from Hags, so he’s connecting for more extra bases.
No, he’s not Soto, but early returns are very promising. The future for him and for Antuna looked neck-and-neck after 2017, but not now.
I still think Antuna has time to close the current gap between him and Garcia created this year. He was just starting to get hot in Hags before injury. He walks more then Garcia, swipes bases similarly, and has more power. He also may stay at short. Now he struck out a bit too much and didn’t hit for average but he is only 18 in full season ball. Still a lot to like there.
Matos promoted midseason from the DSL? That’s interesting. I haven’t seen many midseason promotions from the DSL that I can recall. Wonder how far is Braian Fernandez behind him.
This isn’t atypical. Moves from the DSL to the GCL are usually when there’s about 2-3 weeks left. What is unusual is that it’s a position player and not a pitcher.
Victor Robles played the full season in the DSL his year there, yeah? And Matos seems…ah…not as special as Robles going purely on numbers. Yeah, a little weird. Maybe he’s been doing Duolingo and his English is really good!
Nice collective outing for GCL starters today
Another guy hops a flight from DSL to WPB. Carlos Romero