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Tuesday’s News & Notes

A Meat Loaf night (two out of three, which ain't bad) for the Nats farm

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Matchup
Fresno Lost, 9-7 OFF DAY N/A
Harrisburg Won, 1-0 vs. Altoona, 6:30 p.m. Fedde (2-0, 2.50) vs. Vieaux (0-1, 1.08)
Potomac OFF DAY vs. Salem, 7:05 p.m. Tetreault (2-0, 1.13) vs. TBD
Hagerstown Won, 6-2 vs. Greenville, 6:05 p.m. Irvin (0-1, 2.87) vs. Padron (0-0, 1.74)

Las Vegas 9 Fresno 7
• Nuño 2IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 1K, HR, PO
• Dragmire (L, 0-3) ⅔ IP, 4H, 5R, 5ER, 2BB, 0K
• Kieboom 2-3, R, 2BB, 2RBI
• Gushue 2-4, RBI
• Hernandez 1-4, R, HR, 2RBI

Fresno blew leads of 2-0 and 5-4 as Las Vegas left with a 9-7 win to split the four-game series. Vidal Nuño3 was the opener and helped warm up the Aviators bats with four runs allowed on four hits and two walks over two innings. Brady Dragmire retired just two batters out of eight faced as he let in five runs on four hits and two walks with nary a whiff except the stink of his third loss. Veteran relievers Jordan Mills, Derek Self, and Dakota Bacus combined for 6⅓ scoreless innings of relief to give the Grizzlies a chance to catch up, but they could only muster single runs in the 5th and 9th. Carter Kieboom singled twice, walked twice, and drove in two while Taylor Gushue went 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Fresno offense. Roster moves: RHP Austin Adam optioned from Washington; IF Jake Noll recalled to Washington; LHP Jordan Mills reassigned from Harrisburg.

Harrisburg 1 Altoona 0
• Crowe 7IP, 5H, 0R, 0BB, 7K
• Baez (W, 2-0) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Barrett (SV, 4) 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Taylor 1-3, R, HR, RBI, OF assist at 2B
• Goeddel 1-3, 2B

Chuck Taylor’s solo HR to lead off the 8th was enough for the Sens to straighten the Curve for six-hit, 1-0 shutout. Wil Crowe turned in a career-best night of seven shutout innings on five hits and no walks while fanning seven. Alas, it was a no-decison for Crowe as the win went to Joan Baez, who retired the side in the 8th on 10 pitches while Aaron Barrett worked around a two-out single in the 9th to register his fourth save. Tyler Goeddel and Ian Sagdal both doubled while Drew Ward singled to comprise the four-hit, no-walk offense. Roster move: LHP Dan Jennings assigned from XST.


Potomac – OFF DAY
Fourth-place Potomac returns to action tonight for the first of three against last-place Salem.

Hagerstown 6 Greenville 2
• Cate (W, 1-1) 6IP, 4H, 0R, BB, 7K
• German 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Harrison 2-4, 2-2B, 2RBI
• Lara 2-4, 2R, 3B, 2RBI, E(9)
• C. Wilson 2-5, R, SB(10)

The Suns put up three-spots in the 1st and 3rd to take a 6-0 lead and cruised to a 6-2 win over the Drive in the series opener. Tim Cate finally got his first Low-A win in start #8 (fourth this season) as he shut out Greenville for six innings on four hits and a walk while fanning seven. KJ Harrison continued his assault on Sally Lg. pitching (1.229 OPS) with two doubles and two RBI while Gilbert Lara singled, tripled, scored twice, and also drove in two to power the Hagerstown offense.

19 Commments

  1. For those who haven’t seen, Luke posted a quick first-impressions scouting report of the Potomac roster in the comments of “Sunday Afternoon in Woodbridge.” Definitely worth a read.

  2. Love what Crowe and Cate have done thus far. Wow, the Nats might have FINALLY figured out this 2d-round pick thing. There are not a lot of great starters at Potomac right now, so the door is open for an early forward push from Cate. As for Crowe, I’ll confess that last season left me fearing that his ceiling might not be that high. As Luke often pointed out, his 11-0 record at Potomac was deceiving in a Jack Morris/Gio type way. All of that came back to bite him in an 0-5 way at AA, with a 6.10 ERA. There’s nothing fluky about what’s he’s doing thus far in ’19, though: 0.78 WHIP, 1.17 ERA, 1.17 BB/9, 8.22 K/9, 60% GB rate, 2.01 FIP. In four starts, he’s given up on three total runs and three total walks. Fedde has been very good, but Crowe thus far has been better, in nearly every category.

    Lara and Harrison sure are bucking for early promotion, aren’t they? They were the perfect type of guys to pick up in a salary-dump trade, toolsy guys who had underperformed. Well, they’re not underperforming anymore. They’re playing like you might expect from a 7-digit Latin signee (Lara) and a 3d-round pick college All-American (Harrison).

    1. Now we just have to somehow stop Rizzo from flushing another batch of young arms down the toilet trying to patch up yet another of his epic bullpen fails. Absolutely everything is wrong with how the Nats manage their relief pitching, from how they evaluate talent (the best 7 former Nat relievers in MLB right now would form a championship pen), to how they coach ‘me up (even Trevor Gott is pitching well in SF), to how our idiot manager misuses them (Grace made his 13th appearance in 21 games last night while Ross was warmed up and never used). At some point this has to stop.

      1. Maybe PAC Bell stadium dimensions are better for Gott
        Luke , speaking of Meatloaf .. I believe the cute blonde on the old NBC show Night Court with the short hair dew was the female singer on Blah 3 by the Dashboard lights
        Could we see Howard promoted To Harrisburg after Jennings goes up to big club ??

        1. Wow a Senator Sardinas sighting.
          Cane. There is Yue Wilson HR power rearing up in 1 st IP tonight
          Erase the chalk off that Irwin chalkboard tonight

    2. Altoona Curve LHP Cam Vieux from MSU Spartans on the bump in Burg must have been with Alex Troop on campus at one point

  3. It would help Lara if he were not competing with Yasel Antuna for the Defensive Adventures award.

    1. We see why Milwaukee tossed him aside like the loser in Las Vegas tosses $50 chips around on lame cocktail waitresses …

    2. Let’s hope we don’t have to label Lara with the Steve Sax syndrome.
      We are talking up starting pitching but let’s keep an eye on the bullpen tandems @ each level as they evolve
      Hagerstown interesting Fletcher , German , and others. …Potomac Teel and Howard anchoring that corp. for now …

  4. Agree on Crowe. We hear all the time about how someone underperformed because they were hurt or ran out of gas. That’s what we were told about Crowe and, damn, if it wasn’t true. He just needed a good off-season and Paul ‘Magic Man’ Menhart to make big time strides. Great to see.

    Watching Harrison tear up Low A pitching reminds me of the great Dick Allen line…. “you know how you play 1st base, you hit!”.

    1. And that’s why he wore a batting helmet in the field because he was an adventure like Lara… no just kidding folks. At least Allens generation had great charisma and one liners like Don Rickles. ..

    2. Two full healing years from TJ
      80F. The spauldings should be leaving the park in A levels and in Burg matchbox

  5. I don’t know how true — and it would be interesting to hear the take of our Harrisburg folks — but I’ve attributed a lot of the pitching “magic” coming out of there over the last couple of years to Michael Tejera, the Sens pitching coach since 2018. He made major-leaguers out of Austen Williams (who previously couldn’t even stick at AA) and McGowin, and this year, guys like Crowe, Fedde (who has had many previous struggles), Braymer, Condra-Brogan, Bourque, and even Baez are barely hittable. I don’t think it’s all coincidence, or due to a roving instructor.

    1. KW. Sad to say but some of the guys mentioned haven’t earned any kudos yet except riding the f troop shuttle on AAL or SW via PHX
      Maybe some of those guys should have on their songlist for the long commutes : Glen Campbell’s by the time I get to PHX. …

    2. That’s a really good call. At some point, it’s no longer coincidence. The way that Harrisburg staff is pitching, you have to take notice. All of those you mentioned and more (Sharp, Guilbeau, Barrett) look like they’ll be in The Show this year or next, provided they keep pitching as they are.

      Meanwhile, Derek Lilliquist is doing…something, I assume.

  6. Last night’s game on the island was 1:56. There was great pitching by both teams. I just had a feeling the Sens would find a way as that is what winning teams do.

    I don’t know how much credit the pitching coach should get but you can’t argue with the results under his watch.

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