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Monday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Matchup
Fresno Lost, 5-3 vs. Memphis, 10:05 p.m. Hoover (4-5, 8.41) vs. Warner (1-2, 6.87)
Harrisburg Lost, 7-5 OFF DAY N/A
Potomac Lost, 1-0 OFF DAY N/A
Hagerstown Lost, 2-1 vs. Lakewood, 7:05 p.m. Irvin (6-7, 4.15) vs. Silva (4-5, 3.99)
Auburn Won, 7-2 @ West Virginia, 6:35 p.m. Dyson (0-1, 1.98) vs. Ford (3-1, 2.92)
GCL Nationals OFF DAY vs. GCL Mets, 12:00 p.m.

Memphis 5 Fresno 3
• Crowe (L, 0-2) 6IP, 5H, 5R, 4ER, 2BB, 6K, 2HR
• Kontos 2IP, 1H, 0R, BB, 2K
• C. Kieboom 2-3, R, 2BB
• Y. Hernandez 1-3, R, BB, HR(25), RBI

Fresno never led in this one, giving up two in the 1st and a picket fence in 3rd, 4th, and 5th to lose its sixth straight, 5-3. Wil Crowe was charged with all five Memphis runs on five hits, including two HR, and two walks over six innings. He struck out six while losing his second AAA game. George Kontos (2IP) and Dakota Bacus (1IP) combined for three scoreless to keep things close, but the Grizzlies couldn’t rally. Yadiel Hernandez smacked his 25th HR and drew a walk while Carter Kieboom walked twice, singled twice, and scored a run to lead the Fresno offense.

Trenton 7 Harrisburg 5
• McGowan 5+ IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 10K, HR
• Bonnell (BS, 2;L, 2-4) ⅓ IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, 0K, HR, 2-2 IR-S
• Sagdal 1-3, R, 2BB
• S. Kieboom 1-3, R, BB
• Masters 1-4, R, HR, 2RBI

A 5-1 Senators lead disappeared over the course of two innings as the Thunder struck for one in the 5th and five in the 6th to take the series finale, 7-5. Kevin McGowan struck out a career-high of 10 over five-plus innings, but gave up four runs on four hits (one HR). Bryan Bonnell imploded for the second straight appearance, as he retired only the first batter he faced on a sac fly then served up a single, a homer, a double, and another double before departing with the blown-save-loss. Harrisburg scored five times on six hits with the help of seven walks and the offense was highlighted by David Masters’s two-run HR in the 4th, his first at AA.

Lynchburg 1 Potomac 0
• Teel (L, 6-3) 6IP, 5H, R, ER, 2BB, 5K
• Bartow 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Corredor 2-4, 2B
• Meregildo 1-2, HBP

Lynchburg completed the sweep of Potomac with a 1-0 shutout on six hits. Carson Teel took the hard-luck loss, with the one run allowed on five hits and two walks over six innings. Gabe Klobosits followed with two scoreless innings and Frankie Bartow pitched a 1-2-3 ninth. Aldrem Corredor (double, single), Austin Davidson (single, walk), and Omar Meregildo (single, HBP) were the only P-Nats batters to reach base twice while the rest of the lineup went 2-for-22. Potomac had just three RISP opportunities and no hits in them as six runners were left on, including the tying run in both the 8th and 9th innings.

Lexington 2 Hagerstown 1
• Alastre (L, 4-12) 5IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 4K, HR
• Troop 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Connell 2-4
• Mendoza 1-3, R, BB, HR, RBI

The Suns avoided the shutout but dropped the finale 2-1 to the Legends. Tomas Alastre lost his 12th game while throwing five innings of two-run ball on six hits and two walks and striking out four. Alfonso Hernandez put up one goose egg and Alex Troop two to keep things close. The Hagerstown offense was held to one run on Drew Mendoza’s third homer and six hits total. Justin Connell was the sole Hagerstown batter to collect two hits while Mendoza drew the Suns’ only walk.

Auburn 7 West Virginia 2
• E. Lee (W, 3-2) 5IP, 4H, R, ER, 2BB, 6K
• Chu (S, 1) 4IP, 4H, R, ER, 3BB, 3K
• Arruda 2-3, 3RBI
• Alu 1-3, 2R, 3B, BB, 2RBI
• Randa 1-3, 2BB, RBI

Auburn got two in the 3rd and three in the 4th to cruise to a 7-2 win in the opener against West Virginia, stopping a three-game losing streak. Evan Lee won his first game as a starter, third overall, as he held the Black Bears to a run on four hits and two walks over five innings while setting down six on strikes. Gilberto Chu went the rest of the way with four innings of one-run ball on four hits and three walks for the save. J.T. Arruda came off the bench after pinch-running for Jose Sanchez (left the game after getting hit by a pitch) to single twice and drive in three while Jake Alu tripled in two and walked once to lead the Doubledays offense.

GCL Nationals – OFF DAY
The G-Nats are riding a modest three-game win streak and sit in third place in the GCL East, 3½ behind the G-Marlins. Three weeks remain in the season.

10 Commments

  1. I’ll move forward a comment I made yesterday, since it is just as applicable after a Crowe start: I wonder whether the Nats are wondering about/regretting putting any real pitching prospects in the PCL. How do we have any idea whether Braymer, Crowe, and Bourque have hit their ceiling, or just hit thin air?

    1. Yes, having a team in the PCL/beer league makes it so hard to assess. You also hope it doesn’t screw with the confidence of your young starters that are there.

    2. Will I reach Fresno today before Holland or does the Nats DC office processing take longer than Luke’s infamous witness protection mole
      Processing ??

    3. I wonder if the Orioles would make Santander available in the right rebuilding trade. He could be a nice bench depth bat …..,

    1. I think we all need to give up trying to figure out what the Nats FO is doing with its farm system. I’ve had season tickets for 20 years in HBG. Seems like in recent years they do more buying of free agents and indy players than promoting from within. Have the Nats depleted their farm system so much with trades over the last several years that we have no one to promote? Sure seems like it! I guess I’m still a little disappointed over the demotion of Davidson and the purchase of TJ Rivera.

      2. One of the MOs with stocking the farm has been versatile infielders who can also play all over the place. Especially a few switch hitters..

  3. Sens Fan — Something I’ve been jumping up and down about for several years is how little draft capital the Nats have invested in hitters. I realize that some of the picks in rounds 6-10 are cost-saving guys to pay bonuses to the ones at the top, but let’s think about their picks in the top 10 rounds over the last few years. We’ll skip 2019 since it’s early, although they did spend a relatively high pick on Mendoza. In 2018, four pitchers at the top plus Canning, who moved up well but has stalled at A+. Cropley (8th) is struggling and Shaddy (10th) has already retired. In 2017, (in)famously they only took one hitter in the top 10, Freeman, whose continuing tenure at Potomac has been much discussed. They took more hitters in 2016, with Kieboom and Noll already past AA, Neuse and Johnson traded, and Banks finally hitting AA just recently. Upshaw (11th), who they gave some good bonus money, was recently demoted from A+ and is just hanging on. From 2015: Stevenson (2d) has sorta made it, Perkins (2d) was a miss who has been traded, Wiseman (3d) is at AA now, and Kerian (9th) washed out quickly. 2014: Reetz (3d) still spinning his wheels at A+ and the guys who were picked in rounds 7-10 are out of baseball. Davidson was a 13th-rounder that year. 2013: Ward (3d) in AAA, rounds 6, 7, & 10 guys long gone. Masters in 14th still around. So add ’em up. There’s not much left there with which to field AA and AAA teams. In fact, probably not even a third of those guys made it that far.

    Here’s the bottom line, though: across seven drafts, they’ve only invested one 1st-round pick in a hitter, Kieboom, who looks like he will “make it.” There were three 2d-round picks: Stevenson (AAAA), Perkins (a big reach, probably not a major-leaguer, and traded), and Neuse (raking in the PCL for the OAK). 3d round: Mendoza, Wiseman, Reetz, Ward. 4th round: Freeman, Banks. 5th round: Canning, Johnson.

    1. In the indys, and I’m sure elsewhere, there’s an expression that goes something like “hitting is cheap, but pitching is expensive.” That seems to be the Nats philosophy as well.

      The problem is that they haven’t developed that surplus of pitching and/or converted it into hitting. Instead, they’ve dealt it away to plug holes in the big club and done a piss-poor job of that, which has depleted the system.

      We’re ten years in to the Mike Rizzo (11 if you don’t give him a free pass for 2009) and it’s really hard for me to argue against the critique that the biggest wins were handed to him on a silver platter. Even if you give him credit for dunking on an 8′ hoop, the mistakes are piling up…

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