Saturday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup (’23 Stats at the Level) |
| Rochester | Postponed | vs. Lehigh Valley, 6:05 p.m. | Parker (0-1, 10.45) vs. M. Castillo (6-7, 4.58) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 2-0 | vs. Erie, 7p.m. | Henry (0-2, 10.31) vs. Madden (2-2, 2.78) |
| Wilmington | Won, 4-1 | vs. Brooklyn, 6:35 p.m. | Lord (1-5, 3.56) vs. De La Cruz (2-1, 2.65) |
| Frdericksburg | Won, 4-2 | vs. Delmarva, 7:05 p.m. | Davis (DNP in ’23) vs. Money (0-0, 3.38) |
Rochester vs. Lehigh Valley – PPD
Rain washed away another game in Rochester, which is leading some to suggest alternative plans for Frontier Field. Roster moves: IF Jackson Cluff reassigned from Harrisburg.
Erie 2 Harrisburg 0
• Alvarez 5IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 7K, E
• Powell (L, 0-1) 1IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 0K, HR
• D. Garcia 1-2, 2BB
• House 1-3, BB, SB
The Senators, who were shut out 15 times in 2023, picked up where they left off with a 2-0 loss. Andrew Alvarez no-hit the Seawolves for five innings, allowing two walks and striking out seven. Holden Powell lost the no-no with a two-out double, then gave up the two-run HR that earn him the loss. Harrisburg pounded out four singles and drew six walks, with Dérmis Garcia reaching base three times and Brady House reaching base twice. The Sens struck out 16 times, led by Dylan Crews with four, and went 1-for-10 with RISP. Roster moves: IF Cortland Lawson reassigned from Wilmington.
Wilmington 4 Brooklyn 1
• Lara (W, 1-0) 5IP, 4H, 0R, 2BB, 6K,
• Grissom (H, 1) 1⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K, 2-0 IR-S
• Peterson (SV, 1) 1IP, 1H, 0R, BB, K
• McKenzie 3-4, R, CS
• M. Romero 1-3, R, BB, HR, 2RBI
Wilmington scored in three of its first four “ups” to take a 4-0 lead and held off Brooklyn for a 4-1 win. Andry Lara tossed five shutout frames, allowing two walks and four his while striking out six. Marquis Grissom picked up the hold while stranding two in the 7th and retiring the side in the 8th. Todd Peterson cordero’d through the 9th to pick up the save. Jared McKenzie singled three times and scored ahead of a Daylen Lile triple while Max Romero Jr. homered and drove in two to lead the Blue Rocks offense. Roster moves: SS Marcus Brown reassigned from Fredericksburg; OF Jeremy De La Rosa, RHP Richard Guasch placed on the 7-Day I.L.
Fredericksburg 4 Delmarva 2
• Susana 3IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 4K
• Polanco (W, 1-0) 4IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 5K, HR, PO @ 1B
• Schultz (SV, 1) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Cruz 2-2, 2BB, RBI, 2SB
• Pimentel 2-4, R, RBI
The FredNats rallied for three in the 6th to erase a 2-0 deficit and survived four errors as they doubled up the Shorebirds, 4-2. Jarlin Susana struck out four while letting in an unearend run over three innings. The win went to Bryan Polanco, who gave up a run on a home run and three hits total over four innings. He set down five on strikes. Armando Cruz reached base four times on two walks and two singles and stole two bases while Brandon Pimentel went 2-for-4 with an RBI to pace the Fredericksburg offense. Roster moves: RHPs Austin Amaral, Aldo Ramirez, Brayan Romero and LHP Franklin Marquez placed on the 7-Day I.L.
The Sens bats were as cold as the temperature. They left the bases loaded twice and as noted struck out 16 times. The pitching was outstanding as Erie struck out 14 times.
Alvarez, Lara, and Susana: 13 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 17 K, 4 BB. Keep it up, boys! Lara and Susana in particular under performed expectations last year.
AA game between the two teams: 30 Ks, 7 H, only two for extra bases (both by the wrong team). That doesn’t exactly move the excitement meter.
A couple of interesting opening day lineup decisions, which I hope are just due to the middle infield shuffle they had to do.
– No Pinckney in the lineup in AA; instead org-guy/retread Wilson starts in RF? that makes no sense.
– Powell 1st guy out of the pen, which says a lot about since he was a college closer.
– No Infante in High-A and instead Stehly playing 3B? I wonder how he looked out there, and I have to think this is a one-off while Marcus Brown was driving over during the day. Still, Infante is a 2nd rounder while Stehly was a $10k senior sign … Infante can’t play 3B?
– Cox in the opening day lineup in Low-A; that’s encouraging as heck.
Went to the FredNats game last night. Couple observations:
* Vaquero almost comes out of his shoes when he swings. I get that swinging hard is a part of today’s game but he looks borderline of control up there. Hopefully just opening day adrenaline.
* Really want Elijah Green to succeed as he’s an incredibly nice young man. Spent 30 minutes before the game signing autographs and taking pictures and threw a bunch of balls to kids immediately after the game was over. He looked like the same guy as last year, though. Plays a legit center field (A+ athlete), hits the ball hard BUT still has a lot of swing and miss to his game. His error came on a throw to second after he completely laid out for a ball in front of him. I thought Cruz could have caught it. Obviously a SSS and he’s very young, but I’m losing more faith in him each and every time I see him play.
* Roismar Quintana looks like a different guy. He’s legitimately lost what looks to be 30 pounds.
* Susana impressed. So smooth and seemed much more confident on the mound. Guy is the definition of easy 100. Hoping he’s allowed to go more than 3 or 4 innings this year.
* Ochoa and Cox looked overmatched, especially at the plate. Ochoa really struggled at third, too.
* Pleasantly surprised by Pimentel. Beautiful left stroke and played a nice first base. Not sure if he’s a legit prospect but he’s a guy that probably should be moved up a level or two soon.
nice write up, thx.
Thanks for the insight!
I’m a bit confused why the Nats are handling Susana so conservatively. There seems to be a different and hyper-cautious approach to him compared to any other pitcher, with a very rigid pitch cap. Last season it sat around 50-70 all season, and appears to be, at least for the moment, around 40 pitches.
I wonder why Susana gets this treatment, while guys like Lara don’t.
I agree it’s a stark difference.
My guess is that Susana has very specific dev goals related to mechanics and repeatability and they think throwing tired will reinforce bad habits.
And with Lara (and all the rest of our young arms), that’s less of a particular concern. So they’re allowed to develop their endurance in parallel with their other work.
Of course, at some point, they either need to make Susana a reliever or they need to let him build up his arm and pitch deeper into games. A few more outings like yesterday’s, and I’d be hard pressed not to start stretching him out.
Yes Chris thx . And to think BP was an UFA
Todd good to hear you today
April and wearing a skull cap today .
What shall we expect out of Mac Davis on FRED this early quarter of the season ?
You want to talk about cold ? I recall an Opening week night game in Cincy in old fish bowl Riverfront where the wind off the Ohio made it feel under 30 F.
And I was decades younger then with Better health
Let’s see if Parker pens a beautiful song today
It was definitely a cold one on City Island last night; there was a brief wintry mix squall about half an hour before game time. (I couldn’t quite believe it, but yeah, that was ice and snow.) I dressed for winter — layers, scarf, gloves — and I was still cold. The only game colder I’ve attended that I can think of was the 18-inning playoff game in DC in 2014, and that coldness was bolstered by the howling wind through Nats Park off the Anacostia. The winds off the Susquehanna last night (which is very high, after the rain the mid-Atlantic has seen this week) weren’t as bad.
It was definitely one of those games where one felt that whoever scored first was going to win. When the Senators loaded the bases the second time, I thought, “They’re going to squander this.” Yup.
On a night I thought I’d say Oh Lord ( have mercy ) it’s Oh Henry ( say prayers ).