Saturday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Won, 11-6 | @ Syracuse, 6:35 p.m. | Muñoz (0-3, 8.53) vs. Battenfield (0-5, 5.66) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 6-0 | @ Altoona, 6 p.m. | M. Cuevas (3-7, 5.36) vs Shortridge (10-8, 5.19) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 4-3 | @ Brooklyn, 6 p.m. | Luckham (5-6, 4.51) vs. García (0-0, 5.63) |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 15-10 | @ Delmarva, 7:05 p.m. | Polanco (0-1 9.00) vs. Rangel (2-1, 4.50) |
Rochester 11 Syracuse 6
• Mengden 2⅓ IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 3K, 2HBP
• Banda (W, 2-4) 2⅔ IP, 3H, 3R, 1ER, 1BB, 4K, 1-0
• Baker 3-5, 2R, 2RBI, SB
• Lindsly 2-3, R, SF, 2RBI, E
• Mejia 2-5, R, HR, 3RBI
• Dunn 1-2, 3R, 2BB, SAC
Rochester jumped out to a 5-1 lead, let Syracuse get as close as 6-5, then pulled away with a four-run 9th to win, 11-6. Daniel Mengden got the spot start in place of Jackson Rutledge (“late scratch” according to the Syracuse broadcast team; no mention in the Rochester gamer) and let in a run on two hits, two Robles, and a walk. Anthony Banda got the rulebook win with three runs allowed (one earned) on three hits and a walk over two and 2/3rds innings. Darren Baker led the Red Wings’ ten-hit parade with with three singles and two RBI, followed by Brady Lindsly with two safeties and two RBI. Erick Mejia drove in three with his 8th HR and also singled. Roster moves: IF Luis García recalled to Washington.
Altoona 6 Harrisburg 0
• Ward (L, 0-2) 5IP, 4H, 4R, 2ER, 1BB, 3K, HR
• Ribalta 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Wood 2-4, 2K
• Arruda 1-3
The Senators bats were on recess again as the Curve shut them out, 6-0 on six hits. Thad Ward gave up the first four runs on four hits and a walk over five innings. He struck out three. James Wood was the sole Harrisburg batter to reach base twice with two of the six singles. The Sens struck out ten times and were 0-for-7 with RISP with seven runners left on base.
Brooklyn 4 Wilmington 3
• Lord 6IP, 6H, 2R, 1ER, 0BB, 12K
• Peterson (BS, 4; L, 2-6) ⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 0K, WP
• Pinckney 2-4, R
• Morales 2-4, R
Brooklyn rallied for two in the bottom of the 9th to walk off Wilmington, 4-3. The meltdown wasted a quality start by Brad Lord, who let in two runs (one earned) on six hits over six innings while striking out a career-high of 12. The blown-save-loss went to Todd Peterson who gave up a single and a double to the first two batters he faced then wild-pitched the winning run to third, which enabled the Cyclones to hit sac fly to win the game. Daylen Lile, Andrew Pinckney, and Yohandy Morales each had two hits as the Blue Rocks dropped in eight singles for the night while drawing three bases-on-balls.
Fredericksburg 15 Delmarva 10
• L. Young 4⅓ IP, 8H, 6R, 4ER, 3BB, 3K,
• P. González (W, 8-3) 1⅔ IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 3K
• McHenry 3-5, 2R, BB
• Glasser 3-6, 3R, 2-2B, 4RBI, SB
• Quintana 3-6, R, HR, 2RBI
• Brown 2-4, R, 2BB, 2RBI
Pitching? Who needs pitching? The FredNats and Shorebirds combined for 25 runs and 31 hits in a 15-10 Fredericksburg win. Luke Young didn’t exactly defend his Pitcher of the Week title, giving up six runs (four earned) on eight hits and three walks over four and 1/3rd innings. Pedro González was credited with the win without a clean outing for the fifth time as he allowed a run on three hits over an inning and 2/3rds. Elijah Nunez was the beer man in a 15-hit outing, with John McHenry, Phillip Glasser, and Roismar Quintana combining for nine hits, six runs and six RBI, a walk (McHenry), two doubles (Glasser), and a home run (Quintana).
In the last 5 games Andrew Pinckney is on a tear, going 9-19.
OTOH, Dylan Crews at Harrisburg has a .485 OPS.
I don’t think the Rhineharting of Crews will end up doing irreparable damage, but it sure hasn’t gone well. The AA level is no joke, as several of the Nats better prospects are finding. With so many who are struggling, though, it does make me wonder about Tim Doherty, the hitting coach.
It’s exciting to see what Pinckney and Morales are doing. Pinckney apparently was ranked farther down draft boards because of concerns over whether he would make consistent contact. That doesn’t seem to be an issue thus far. If prospect rankers are honest, he’s going to be passing a lot of “name” folks. He’s just as “toolsy” as most of the others.
This is definitely the best pitching Dylan Crews has seen. He’ll figure it out but enough of the ‘he’s ready now’ talk.
Lord reminded me of watching Eric Fedde pitch, every pitch is darting one way or another. hit 94 on an early strike out. excellent command on this particular night, could be an effective middle reliever down the road
The description of the 2022 draft class should be “inconsistent”. Young was named player of the week last week, and then immediately followers up with this stinker. Lord get’s rocked for 5 runs in 5 IP, then immediately follows up with this gem. But I’ll take inconsistent over consistent if it means consistently bad. And on the whole, Lord has had a really strong finish to the season, after an overall bad start to the season. 2.48 ERA with 35 K, 9 BB in 36 IP (yet somehow hasn’t won one of those 7 starts). Not bad for an 18th rounder in his first pro season!
I really hope Rizzo (if he ends up sticking around) has more success next season building a bullpen from scraps. He found a few useful reclamation projects in Harvey and Finnegan in recent years, a skill which plagued him for the better part of a decade, and which led to trading away a lot of mid-level talent to acquire short-term relievers.
This year, despite being in unabashed re-build mode, the bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster. We’ve had a surprisingly stable rotation. Only 7 different players have started a game for the Nats. An insane statistic. Yet, 21 players have thrown in relief. Only 5 of these 21 have an ERA below 5.00: the aforementioned Harvey and Finnegan, plus Weems and Edwards (both acquired last season) and prospect, Jose Ferrer. Most of the other 16 have been waiver of minor league free agent adds this season, and have been uniformly bad.
And it extends to AAA. 41 (!!!!!) pitchers have thrown for Rochester this season, and according to my quick count only 11 of the 41 came through the Nats farm system. Of the 30 other mostly free agents signings, most have already been released/demoted after getting lit up in Rochester (Peguero, Cessa, Kilome, Castro, etc.). Of the ones that actually performed decently (sub 5.00 ERA), most of them ended up getting destroyed in DC (Rico Garcia, Machado, Espino) or got released before getting a promotion (Danish, Baldonado).
Despite the huge number of players acquired/auditioned this season for a wide open bullpen role (30-40 players), there seems to be only two that might possibly have a future with the club: Gerson Moreno and Alemao Hernandez. Moreno, a minor leage FA from the Tigers, has been surprisingly dependable and consistent. Having looked at the sorry state of the Nats and Red Wings’ bullpens, I’m mystified how Moreno hasn’t been promoted yet. Alemao Hernandez was an astute pick up from the Mexican leagues, and has been reliable, albeit not good, in an otherwise awful Rochester pitching staff. He spent half the season in Harrisburg, posted a 3.48 ERA, and was promoted to Rochester, where he’s posted a 4.58 ERA. Moreno is 27, while Hernandez might still have more to show in the future, at only 23. Still, one would hope that through so much churn this season, we’d have found at least ONE major league piece for the future…
Awesome research on the one, Will. Eye opening stuff.
Rainey will be huge for the bullpen next year. If he bounces all the way back we could have a solid back three with him, Hunter and Finn. I’d love for Williams to be converted back to a long man. Those two things happen and the pen looks much better. Could have the final four spots up for grabs between Weems, Ferrer, Thompson, Garcia, Willingham, Machado and maybe a couple of FA signings. Could also see a scenario where a guy like Adon or Rutledge is carried in the pen. Would depend on if we sign a starter in FA (Aaron Nola, anyone? – yes I know he’s had a down season).
* on the pen. Stupid autocorrect.