Friday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Matchup |
| Rochester | Postponed | @ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 6:35pm | Lara (0-1, 12.91) vs. Woodford (0-0, 3.00) |
| Harrisburg | Postponed | vs. Richmond, 7pm | Saenz (0-1, 27.00) vs. Bertrand (0-1, 8.10) |
| Wilmington | Won, 4-3 (11 inn.) |
vs. Hub City, 6:35pm | Cornelio (0-1, 16.88) vs. Davalillo (0-0, 0.00) |
| Frdericksburg | Won, 7-4 | vs. Salem, 7:05pm | Meckley (0-1, 10.80) vs. Aita (1-0, 0.00) |
Rochester vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre – PPD
For the second time in three days, the Red Wings and RailRiders were postponed. They’ll shoot to make it up tomorrow afternoon with a twi-night twinbill.
Richmond vs. Harrisburg – PPD
SSDL as Harrisburg and Richmond will punt this to tomorrow night with a doubleheader starting at 4:30pm. Roster moves: RHP Jose Atencio placed on the 7-Day I.L.; RHP Luke Young reassigned from Wilmington.
Wilmington 4 Hub City 3 (11 inn.)
• Clemmey 5IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 10K
• Huff (BS, 1) 2IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 1K
• Jimenez (W, 1-0) 2IP, 1H, 2R, 0ER, 1BB, 2K, 2WP
• Pimentel 3-5, 2B, RBI
• Lomavita 2-4, R, RBI
• Green 2-5, R, 0K
The Blue Rocks finally got in the win column with a 4-3 triumph in extra innings. Starter Alex Clemmey struck out a career-high 10 over five shutout innings while allowing one hit and one walk. The Spartanburger pitchers were nearly his match, limiting the Wilmington offense to one run in regulation, which enabled the Hub City batters to tie it in the 9th and take leads of 2-1 in the 10th and 3-2 in the 11th. Two walks and Seaver King beating out a grounder tied it in the 10th while Elijah Green and Chad Lomavita both singled ahead of Brandon Pimentel’s two-run double that sealed the deal.
Fredericksburg 7 Salem 4
• Polanco 4IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 3K
• Bollenbacher (W, 1-0) 1IP, 1H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K
• Cranz (SV, 1) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Quintana 2-4, R
• Mota 2-4, R, 2K
• R. Diaz 1-1, R, 2B, 2RBI
Randal Diaz’s pinch-hit, two-run double, followed by Everett Cooper’s two-run triple, highlighted a five-run 8th as Fredericksburg took Game Three, 7-4. Bryan Polanco got the start but let in two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out… wait for it… three. Matt Bollenbacher picked up the win despite allowing an unearned run in the 8th, while Robert Cranz pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. The FredNats racked up eight hits – four by Roismar Quintana and Jorgelys Mota, who both went 2-for-4.
Wow, no losses!
And what a statement of a performance from Clemmey. We know his stuff misses bats, the problem is that it also misses the strike zone. He’s allowed only one hit in both of his outings, but he allowed 5 BB in 3 IP last game, but only 2 in 5 IP yesterday. He’s now got 7 BB in 8 IP. Worrying. But remarkably only allowed 2 H, so his WHIP is a very solid 1.13. He’s also got 16 K! Can’t wait to see Sykora tower next to him in the B Rox rotation.
Also carrying forward the discussion about Young’s strange decline in base running. Statcast tracks sprint speed, and Young actually has the 8th fastest sprint speed in baseball in 2025 (https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/sprint_speed – interestingly Crews is just a fraction behind him in 14th). In 2024, he was very slightly faster, but came in at 17th fastest in the league. The speed drop off seems to coincide generally with the league’s drop, probably as players are still getting into early season form. So I’m not sure it is a decline in speed, but rather teams are better prepared for Young’s baserunning threat? Still, it doesn’t explain how the 8th fastest player is leading the league in getting caught stealing. Those two things shouldn’t be connected. So it seems most likely to me that Young is making bad decisions about when to attempt steals, something that I think could be aided with better coaching. But I don’t think that’s going to come from vibes-only first base coach Gerardo Parra, who in his career was 97 for 152 in SB attempts (63.8%), which is way, way below league average.
That’s a good point about Parra. Every time Young gets on first, Parra is in Young’s ear. Each base-stealer can get advice, sure, but basically has to have his own instincts.
But what’s perplexing is that Young HAD great instincts. As Pilchard pointed out yesterday, Young was successful in each of his first 25 SB attempts!
It maybe doesn’t help that halfway through that flawless stretch, we changed 1B coaches to Parra. But I’m still confused as to why Young used to have good instincts, and now doesn’t.
For whatever it’s worth, last year, the Nats ran a lot more than most other teams (led the league in SBs), but they were below average in their success (75% team success rate vs 79% success rate in the league), meaning Young’s lack of success was not unique to him. Abrams, Thomas and Wood were also well below average too (in fact among the 6 biggest base stealers, only Garcia had a success rate above league average). This season, we’ve been running way less frequently (8th most SBs), but besides Young’s failures, have fared quite well.
Young thinking too much ?
Elijah singled ?
What role is Luke Young actually embracing ? 3-6 innings role ?
Yes, Clemmey currently has a K9 of 18.0 and an H9 of 2.3. (We’ll ignore the BB9 of 7.9. Or call him Nuke.) The most impressive number, though is 19, his age, dominating in a league where our top collegiate draft picks are playing. He doesn’t turn 20 until July, so this will be his “age 19” season. Right now he’s truly unhittable. Presumably Keith Law will make it out to see him sooner or later.