Wednesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | OFF DAY | vs. Columbus, 11:05am | Cavalli (1-1, 6.59) vs. Messick (3-1, 2.95) |
| Harrisburg | Won, 3-2 (11 inn.) |
@ Richmond, 6:35pm | Cornelio (0-0, 1.50) vs. Sinacola (0-2, 5.59) |
| Wilmington | Won, 6-1 | @ Hudson Valley, 11:05am | Kent (4-3, 3.68) vs. Lagrange (3-2, 4.63) |
| Fredericksburg | Postponed | @ Lynchburg, 4:30pm | Meckley (2-3, 4.64) and Y. Tejeda (1-1, 3.53) vs. Matson (2-1, 2.08) and Doughty (0-3, 4.80) |
| FCL Nationals | Won, 6-3 | OFF DAY |
Rochester Red Wings, 17-33, 10th place I.L. East, 18½ GB
Rochester has won five of its last seven despite the callups of Daylen Lile and Robert Hassell but has fallen another half game off the pace. The series against Columbus continues today with a late-morning start this morning, night games Thursday through Saturday, and an afternoon game on Sunday.
Harrisburg 3 Richmond 2 (11 inn.)
• Conley 5⅔ IP, 3H, 0R, 3BB, 3K
• Schultz (BS, 1) ⅔ IP, 1H, 2R, 0ER, 2BB, 0K, E
• Santos (W, 2-2) 1⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Stehly 2-3, 2B, SAC
• Glasser 2-4, BB, 2CS
All five runs were unearned and scored in extras with the Senators sneaking past the Flying Squirrels, 3-2 in 11 innings. Bryce Conley made his third start for Harrisburg and pitched into the 6th with three hits, walks, and whiffs. The Sens scored twice in the top of the 10th without hitting the ball out of the infield, but returned the favor by committing two errors to score two unearned runs. Richmond let in the gamewinner on a wild pitch in the 11th and Junior Santos, who got the last out in the 10th, set the side down in order to pick up the win. Murphy Stehly had multiple hits for the fourth straight game with a single and a double while Phillip Glasser singled twice, walked once, and was picked off twice to highlight a six-hit, two-walk offense.
Wilmington 6 Hudson Valley 1
• Clemmey (W, 2-3) 6IP, 2H, 0R, 2BB, 9K, HBP
• Glavine 2IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 1K
• King 3-5, 2R, HR, 2RBI, SB
• Dugas 2-4, 2R, 2HR, 3RBI
• Nunez 2-4, BB, SB
Wilmington went deep three times in a 6-1 romp over Hudson Valley in the series opener. Alex Clemmey turned in his second quality start with six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out nine. Peyton Glavine added two more goose eggs to the scoreboard before Samuel Vasquez lost the shutout in the 9th. Seaver King led the Blue Rocks 11-hit parade with two singles and a homer while Gavin Dugas homered twice and drove in three. Roster moves: LHP Adam Bloebaum reassigned from Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg vs. Lynchburg – PPD
Rain claimed the series opener between the Hillcats and FredNats. They’ll shoot to make it up tonight with a twi-night doubleheader.
Roster moves: LHP Pablo Aldonis reassigned from the FCL.
FCL Nationals 6 FCL Astros 3
• J. Feliz 3IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 3BB, 2K, HR
• L. Johnson (W, 2-0) 4IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 7K
• Petersen 2-3, 2R, BB, 2B, SB
• Tavarez 2-3, R, RBI, SB
• K. Diaz 1-2, R, BB, RBI
The FCL Nationals scored three times in the 7th on a balk, an RBI single, and a wild pitch to double up the FCL Astros, 6-3. Jose Feliz went the first three and was blasted for three runs four hits (one HR) and three walks. He struck out two. The win went to the reigning FCL Pitcher of the Week Luke Johnson, who blanked the F-Astros on two hits and a walk while striking out seven. Sam Petersen singled, doubled, and walked while Feldi Tavarez singled twice and drove in a run to pace the F-Nats attack.
Bloebaum’s promotion was highly deserved. He had a 0.46 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, and 26 K in 19.2 IP. Though he is 24, so he was very old for Fredericksburg, in part because he was an UDFA who the Nats signed out of Indy league ball. Looking forward to seeing what he can do in the cavernous Wilmington park.
I’ve commented on both recently, but Petersen and Stehly continue to rake. Good for them.
Really encouraging start from Clemmey. He’s had a really funny season so far. Check out his ER allowed game by game:
1. 2
2. 0
3. 4
4. 0
5. 6
6. 0
7. 2
8. 0
9. 2
10. you guessed it… zero
In May, he’s settled down quite a bit, no more of those 4 and 6 run outings, and quite a bit better command. He walked 20 batters in 18 innings in April. But in May it’s down to 13 BB in 22.2 IP. Still way too high, but much more manageable than more than 1 per inning.
If Clemmey can get (and keep) the walks under control, everything else is there. His K9 is awesome and he doesn’t give up a lot of hits, just 6.2 H9 so far this season, in line with his “career” (1.3 seasons) 6.4.
Of course the challenge is that he’s trying to develop a third pitch while gaining control at the same time. But he’s still only 19 and already succeeding at A+. If the control comes, he has a shot at being at AA around the time he turns 20 in mid-July.
Should we expect take off eventually @ FRED for Carlos T and Christian V??
Although most feel like Elijah Green is a lost cause, Rizzo was on the radio this morning and said that the Nats sent Green back to Florida to completely breakdown and reconstruct Green’s plate approach. Among those working with Green is Jayson Werth (Werth has a history with Green as Green was a HS teammates with Werth’s son). Understand that this is something that should have been down a long time ago, but Rizzo was firm that the Nats still believe in Green (he’s still just 21) and he lauded all of Green’s other tools, but admitted that a 50% K rate in A ball is not going to get it done. We shall see.
Speaking of improved K rate, Seaver King:
April 37% — No bueno
May 16% – Muy bien
BTW, King is 11 for his last 22, with… wait for it… 0 Ks. His defense has also improved. Way early to make any conclusions about King (which some people insisted on going negative after the first couple of weeks of the season), but the trend is promising.
From reading the draft time scouting reports on King, I always got the impression that he is a slow starter that’ll make his mistakes at the beginning and once he gets them out of the way and learns from them, he’ll take off, which looks like this is what’s happening now.
In other words a player with good aptitude who will just need a bit of time at each level to work off the wiggles at first but then come on strong.
Sneaky good pick by the Nats and also allowed them to sign an even better pick in Dickerson.
Keith Law said that someone had messed with King’s swing. Perhaps he’s getting it un-messed . . .
Cavalli’s line today: 5IP, 3H, 0R, 1BB, 10K, 70 pitches, 51 strikes. Seems like a pretty good stat line…
Cavalli is getting the call up soon.