Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup (’19 Stats at the Level) |
| Rochester | Lost, 8-7 | @ Lehigh Valley, 7:05 p.m. | Braymer (0-6, 7.20) vs. Falter (6-5, 3.84 @ AA) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 3-1 | @ Somserset, 7:05 p.m. | Teel (7-2, 3.12 @ A+) vs. Krook (2-3, 4.50) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 4-2 | vs. Aberdeen, 7:05 p.m. | TBD vs. TBD |
| Fredericksburg | Lost, 19-3 | @ Lynchburg, 6:30 p.m. | P. González (1-4, 9.69 @ SS-A) vs. Jones (3-0, 2.17 @ AZL) |
Lehigh Valley 8 Rochester 7
• Fuentes 1⅔ IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, BB, 2K, HBP, WP
• Eppler 4⅓ IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 4K, 2-1 IR-S; 1-2, R, BB
• Baez (L, 0-1) ⅔ IP, 0H, R, ER, 2BB, K, BK, 2WP
• Tomás 2-5, 2R, HR, 2RBI, E
• Castillo 1-2, R, 2B, 3BB
A walk, a balk, and two wild pitches by Joan Baez in the 9th gave Lehigh Valley its second straight win over Rochester, 8-7. The IronPigs smelted Steven Fuentes for three runs on four hits and a walk as they sent the 24-y.o. Panamanian packing after just an inning and 2/3rds. Veteran Tyler Eppler came on and settled things down, enabling the RedWings to dig out of a 4-0 and take a 7-5 lead going into the late innings. Rochester took advantage of the nine walks given up by Lehigh Valley to score seven times on just eight hits, highlighted by Yasmany Tomás’s two-out, two-run HR in the 6th.
Somerset 3 Harrisburg 1
• Sanchez 4IP, 7H, 3R, 2ER, 0BB, 4K, HR
• Wells 3IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Wiserman 1-4, R, HR, RBI
• Freeman 1-4, SB
No shutout, thanks to Rhett Wiseman, but there wasn’t enough pitching to make it stand up as the Patriots downed the Sens, 3-1. Mario Sanchez was charged with all three Somerset runs on seven hits (one HR), with no walks and four whiffs. Nick Wells followed with three scoreless and Jhon Romero one to keep it close. Alas, Cole Freeman’s 1st-inning single was the only other hit on the night for Harrisburg. Roster moves: RHP Alberto Baldonado reassigned from Rochester.
Aberdeen 4 Wilmington 2
• Adon (L, 0-1) 5IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 4K
• Karp 3IP, 2H, R, ER, 3BB, 4K
• Connell 3-3, 2B, 2RBI, CS
• Alu 2-4, R
Wilmington kept this one closer than the previous night, but the “L” counts the same as Aberdeen proved to be better, 4-2. Joan Adon took the hill (and the loss) as he turned in five innings of two-run ball with two hits and a walk while fanning four. Andrew Karp made his first appearance since 2018 with three innings, allowing one run on two hits and three walks and striking out four. Justin Connell singled twice, doubled once, and drove in both Blue Rocks runs but was also caught stealing – one of three on the night, including the backend of a K-2-6 double play to end the 8th.
Lynchburg 19 Fredricksburg 3
• Seijas (L, 0-1) ⅔ IP, 7H, 7R, 6ER, 0BB, 0K
• Cuevas 4⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K, 1-0 IR-S
• Strohschein 2-4, R, 2B, RBI, E(3)
• Randa 0-2, R, 2BB, 2K
• Díaz 0-2, 2BB, PB(2), 2E; ⅔ IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
For four innings, the F-Nats outdueled the Hillcats by a 1-0 count. Unfortunately, those came in the 2nd through the 5th in a 19-3 defenestration. Karlo Seijas didn’t make it out of the first inning as he was charged with seven runs on seven hits and nary a base-on-balls nor a out-on-strikes. Teenager Michael Cuevas got the last out of the 1st and put up four goose eggs on the scoreboard with just one hit allowed. Kevin Strohschein led the Fredericksburg hit column with a single and a double and an RBI. Jake Randa went hitless again but walked twice – his fifth of the season. Geraldi “Gio” Díaz also drew two walks, committed two errors, and mopped up in the 8th by retiring two of four batters and allowing… wait for it… two hits.
Wow, the Fburg pitching staff is not looking good.
And I was getting pushback yesterday for suggesting this is going to be a long year for Nats affiliates… And here we are allowing 34 runs in 34 innings after allowing 38 in 38 yesterday. Also followed up with 10 errors (compared to 9 yesterday). The bats did improve… marginally. Scoring 13 runs in 36 innings (compared to 9 yesterday) and “only” struck out 37 times in 36 innings (lol compared to 48 yesterday).
I’ll say it again, this is going to be a long season. Sure, we aren’t going to lose 16 or 19 to 3 every day. Or even lose every game. But it’s going to be a lot more common than we hope it will.
The most depressing part is that this year there’s fewer “prospects” than ever. One, because so many have graduated or been traded away. Two, because the reduced draft has led to many fewer players in the system.
Still, I hope there’ll be some players who manage to rise above the rest, and give us some new players to root for.
F-Nat pitching: 35 runs surrendered in two games. That’s impressive, or something. It’s actually amazing to see the Wed. game time of only 3:18 with 22 runs scored between the teams.
Looking for a positive in the midst of that conflagration, 19-year-old Micheal Cuevas (23d round in 2019) pitched 4.1 innings of 1-hit, no-run ball. He’s listed as 6’2″, 165. Get that kid some protein shakes!
Will — For the most part, I agree that the depressing start seems to confirm the suspected overall lack of talent. I guess all we can do is hope that some guys figured some things out over the last year, got their mental side together, or got healthy and can reignite something in their careers. Nice game from Justin Connell in his step up to A+. At Fredericksburg, Randa, Arruda, and Ydens were all pretty decent college players. Junior Martina had an impressive 2019. The “lost” year really has the age clock ticking faster for all these college draftees, though.
On the bright side, many of the Nationals’ most interesting prospects aren’t playing yet. Recent IFAs: Andry Lara, Jeremy de la Rosa, Armando Cruz, Roismar Quintana, and Pablo Aldonis appear destined for the GCL, and Sammy Infante, Brady Lindsly and Mitchell Parker from the 2020 draft, along with Viandel Pena and Leandro Emiliani are still MIA. So there’s some potentially high-ceiling talent that haven’t begun playing yet, but oof… this might be a return to those days of 2005-2008, where we had to convince ourselves Jason Bergmann, Bill Rhinehart and Shawn Hill were “prospects” simply due to a lack of anything else resembling one.
Ugh, what a dreadful 2021 debut for Seijas. Horrible.
We’re not gonna win a lot of games with lineups that can’t score runs and pitching staffs that can’t put up zeroes. That goes for the big league club as well.