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Wednesday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Matchup
Fresno Lost, 12-3 @ Tacoma, 2:35 p.m. Hoover (2-0, 5.70) vs. Sheffield (1-2, 4.38)
Harrisburg Lost, 7-3 @ Akron, 6:35 p.m. Crowe (4-2, 2.66) vs. Morgan (0-0, 2.61)
Potomac Won, 6-3 @ Down East, 11:00 a.m. Borne (1-2, 5.14) vs. Bahr (2-1, 2.04)
Hagerstown Won, 12-5 vs. Kannapolis, 7:05 p.m. Peguero (2-2, 2.30) vs. Dominguez (0-2, 2.81)

Tacoma 12 Fresno 3
• Voth (L, 3-4) 5IP, 8H, 5R, 5ER, 2BB, 4K, HR, WP
• Self 1⅔ IP, 5H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 1K
• Read 2-4, R, HR, 3RBI, 2E
• Hernandez 1-3, R, BB

Raudy Read’s three-run HR was all that stood between the Tacoma pitchers and a shutout as the Rainiers demolished the Grizzlies, 12-3. Austin Voth lost for the fourth time as he gave yup five runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out four. The Fresno ‘pen did its best imitation of the DC ‘pen as they gave up a combined nine runs over the final three innings. Read also singled, as did Yadiel Herandnez, Jake Noll, and José “Orange” Marmolejos to account for the Grizzlies’ five (5) hits.
Roster moves: SS Bengie Gonzalez placed on the 7-day I.L.; RHP Kevin McGowan assigned from Washington Nationals.

Akron 7 Harrisburg 3
• Braymer (L, 3-2) 5⅔ IP, 8H, 5R, 2ER, 0BB, 5K
• Guilbeau 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K, 1-0 IR-S
• H. Jones 3-5
• Barrera 2-4, R, BB, RBI, SB
• 1-for-9 RISP, 11 LOB

Harrisburg also saw an early 3-0 lead go bye-bye as Akron scored seven unanswered runs to take the series opener, 7-3. Ben Braymer was knocked out with two outs in the 6th with five runs in (two earned) on eight hits with nary a walk and five whiffs for his second loss. After getting through the 7th with only one baserunner, Trevor Rosenthal put the game away in the 8th as he let in the last two RubberDuck runs on a hit batsman, a walk, and a double. Taylor Guilbeau cleaned up after him with two strikeouts to strand a runner. Hunter Jones led the Sens’ hit column with three singles in five trips to the plate, followed by Tres Barrera with two singles and a walk.

Potomac 6 Down East 3
• Johnston (W, 5-4) 6IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 5K, HR, WP
• Bonnell (SV, 1) 1IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Corredor 3-5, R, RBI
• Masters 1-3, R, BB, 2RBI, 2K
• Harrison 0-3, BB, SF, RBI; 8PO, 0A, 0E, 0CS at C

Kyle Johnston’s dominance of the “W’s”—Wilmington, Winston-Salem, Wood Ducks ;-)—continues as he spun his fourth straight quality start in a 6-3 P-Nats win. Johnson has also won his last four starts as he let in two on four hits (one HR) without a walk and struck out five over six innings to improve to 5-4 on the year. Bryan Bonnell cordero’d his way through the 9th as he gave up two hits to bring the tying run to the plate but kept them from scoring to earn his first save. Aldrem Corredor remains hot as the sturdy first baseman went 3-for-5 to improve his BA to .314 for the month of May and lead the Potomac offense.

Hagerstown 12 Kannapolis 5
• Irvin (W, 3-3) 5⅓ IP, 8H, 4R, 4ER, BB, 6K, HR, HBP, PO at 2B
• Guillen (SV, 2) 3⅔ IP, 3H, R, ER, BB, 4K, WP, 2-0 IR-S
• Rhinesmith 2-4, 3R, BB, HR, 2RBI
• Mendez 3-5, R, 2B, 3RBI, SB
• Marinconz 2-5, R, 3B, RBI

Hagerstown put this one away early with an eight-run 2nd as they lapped Kannapolis, 12-5 to win Game One. Jake Irvin won for the third time in four starts with the first four runs allowed on eight hits and a walk while striking out six over five and a 1/3rd innings. Angel Guillen stranded two while getting out of the 6th and finished the game to earn his second save, giving up the last Intimidator run on three hits and a walk while fanning four. Jacob Rhinesmith homered for the first time in 2019 and drove in two while Ricardo Mendez plated three with three hits to lead the Suns’ 14-hit, six-walk assault.

12 Commments

  1. A few teams figured out early on that they could juke the stats by running their youngest prospects up the ladder with little fear of loss of value. If your 19-year-old gets off to a good start in low-A, you can bump him up to high-A and beyond without much downside: If he hits well, he becomes highly valued; if he stinks, well, he was so young for the level! Even if he’s just adequate, he looks better because of his age – well, he ‘held his own,’ and therefore we can project so much improvement as he gets older.

    Bringing this forward from yesterday—it’s a quote from Keith Law in his newsletter that I think might explain a few things about Garcia, i.e. the Nats may be prepping him as trade bait.

    1. Great–a team going nowhere still wants to trade one of the few blue chippers it has–no doubt to get more crappy relievers who won’t help the big club at all. Fire Rizzo now.

  2. In the immortal words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friend. Yes, I totally think the Law quote explains the rapid push of Garcia up the ladder. However, they’re currently not close enough to anything in the standings to be trading prospects. They should be dumping vets to get prospects, although I don’t know that they’ve got the assets that would bring back much in return. Also, there’s a lot of scuttlebutt out there that Boras is telling everyone that the Nats have missed the boat on getting Rendon extended. If so, that means they will need a 3B in addition to a 2B. Kieboom can’t play both at the same time, so that would seem to leave Garcia next in line. OK, more than “seem”; they’ve got no one else on the horizon, unless someone still believes that Drew Ward can be an everyday MLB player. It also seems equality clear, though, that Garcia won’t be MLB-ready by early 2020.

    1. Blowing $180 million on Rendon is probably the wrong move at this point anyway. When I squint, I see Ryan Zimmerman 2.0 in terms of tge likelihood that Rendon’s 30s may be injury riddled and frustrating.

      2. I still drop the Jung out of Texas Tech next month into this conversation equation

  3. Buried big story of the day: Nats trying KJ Harrison back at catcher, where he immediately would be considered a stud prospect because of his bat, even with Raudy Read-level defense. At 1B, Harrison’s a good hitter for average (thus far with the Nats) but has yet to show the power needed from a corner INF.

    Another nice start for Kyle Johnston. I’m still not sure what to think of him.

    1. Agreed. If KJH can catch, he becomes a far, far more interesting prospect.

    2. I thought pointing out his defensive stats on a subpar offensive night *was* bringing that out to the fore 😉

  4. Thanks Luke.
    Agree completely with both of you guys. If the Nats do resign Rendon (big if) then Garcia becomes big-time trade bait.
    KW, you stole my thunder on KJ, I was shocked to see the stats Luke threw out on him catching.
    Have no idea what to make of this.

  5. One of the commenters here (Nats Guy?) saw Harrison play regularly in college. Maybe he has a scouting report on him behind the plate.

  6. That is the story of the day. If Harrison can catch longterm, he becomes a top prospect for me. Definitely a first division regular. The bat for a catcher would be above average. As far as a first basemen the bat just doesn’t have enough juice.

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