| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Won, 3-1 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Harrisburg | Won, 2-0 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Wilmington | Won, 3-1 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| Fredericksburg | Lost, 9-2 | OFF DAY | N/A |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | OFF DAY | |
| DSL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. DSL Blue Jays Red, 11am |
Rochester 3 Buffalo 1
• Conley (W, 1-0) 5IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 6K, HR
• Grissom (SV, 2) 1⅔ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 4K, 2-0 IR-S
• Hassell 2-4, R, HR, RBI
• Arruda 2-4, 2RBI
Robert Hassell’s solo HR put Rochester on top at 2-1 and the pitchers held the line to take the series finale, 3-1. Bryce Conley won his first AAA game since 2023 with five innings of one-run ball on three hits (one HR) and a walk while striking out six. Marquis Grissom Jr. struck out four of the five batters he faced, stranding two runners in the 8th and earning his second save at AAA. Hassell also singled whike J.T. Arruda bookended the scoring with a pair of RBI singles in the 2nd and 6th innings. Roster moves: LHP Shinnosuke Ogasawara recalled to Washington; RHP Ryan Loutos optioned from Washington.
Harrisburg 2 Altoona 0
• Huff 3IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• M. Gomez (W, 1-1) 2IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 3K
• Santos (SV, 5) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Wallace 1-3, R
• Naranjo 1-3, RBI
The Senators bullpen combined to shut out the Curve, 2-0 on three hits in the series finale. Chance Huff went the first three as the opener while Miguel Gomez won in his AA debut with two scoreless. Junior Santos worked a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his fifth save. Cayden Wallace singled and scored a run while Joe Naranjo singled him in. Seaver King and Johnathon Thomas also had safeties to round out the Harrisburg hit tally of four. Roster moves: RHP Miguel Gomez promoted from Wilmington.
Wilmington 3 Jersey Shore 1
• Tolman 4IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 4K
• Cáceres 2IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 3K
• Amaral (SV, 3) 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Lomavita 3-4, 2B, 2RBI
• Cruz 2-3, BB, 2B(5)
• Lawson 2-4, R, 2B, RBI
Wilmington took a 3-0 lead after three and held on to win 3-1 and split the series against Jersey Shore. Erik Tolman stretched to four scoreless innings with two hits, one walk, and four whiffs. Bryan Cáceres gave up the BlueClaws runs on two hits and a walk over two innings but was credited with the “W” as the pitcher of record. Chad Lomavita kept the balls in front of him and sent three past the fielders, including a double, and drove in two while Cortland Lawson singled and hit an RBI double to lead the Blue Rocks offense.
Delmarva 9 Fredericksburg 2
• B. Romero (L, 1-2) 4IP, 8H, 6R, 6ER, 5BB, 0K
• Beeker 2IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 2K
• Peoples 0-3, R, BB, 2K, E(5)
• Vaquero 1-4, OF assist @ HP
The Shorebirds got four in the 1st and two in the 2nd and cruised to a 9-2 win over the FredNats in the series finale. Brayan Romero gave up those six run on eight hits and five walks over four innings to take his second loss. Fredericksburg’s offense was limited to five singles and two walks and struck out ten times.
FCL Nationals, 24-18, 2nd place FCL East, 3GB
The FCL Nationals split their four games last week but lost a game and a half in the standings. With less than three weeks to go, the F-Nats elimination number is 15. This week it’s five games in five days with two against the first-place F-Astros tomorrow and Thursday; two against the F-Marlins on Wednesday and Saturday, and a Friday trip to Port St. Lucie to visit the F-Mets.
DSL Nationals, 13-12, T4th place, DSL South, 6GB
The D-Nats took three of five games and moved into a tie for 4th place. The run differential is now +1. This week, it’s home games today, Friday, and Saturday road games tomorrow night(!) and Thursday morning.
RIZZO, MARTINEZ FINALLY FIRED
The only argument is how long this overdue. I’ll take the easy one first.
Dave Martinez should have been canned no later than the 2021 season. Yes, the Nats won the 2019 World Series. But it was despite him not because of him. Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg were far, far more responsible, just like Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson papered over the numerous mistakes Bob Brenly made in 2001.
Frankly, Martinez should have been fired the same day he said “It’s never on coaching.” There was no way anyone (player or otherwise) was going to respect him after that. It let slip the entitlement he felt as “a baseball man.”
Mike Rizzo is obviously more complicated. He had been a member of the Nats front office for all but one year of its time in D.C. He had to clean up after the “Smiley” Gonzalez fiasco and did it fairly quickly. Even if you want to credit Johnny DiPuglia for it, Rizzo deserves praise for dinginf the right man to help.
But Rizzo also had the fortune of being able to draft two generational talents back-to-back and built the team into a winner that went a long way toward his signature free-agent signing of Scherzer, which was also set up by signing Jayson Werth five years earlier
However, as this site has overlapped all but one year of Rizzo’s tenure, his strength in player development was finding gems on other teams not generating his own. Not to mention—well, YES to mention—the organization’s inability to keep its young pitchers healthy and its odd corresponding fetish for signing guys that were hurt in the hopes of getting them healthy and getting production on the cheap. It never worked out.
Predictably, Rizzo alluded to the longstanding complaint of Nats ownership on his way out the door: “That’s the job. I had a great run. Navigated that ownership group for almost 20 years.”
While not as blatant as Martinez, the implication that he would have been more successful with a bigger budget papers over the era in which the Nats DID spend money. Unfortunately, just as it was Martinez’s job was to win with the players he had, Rizzo’s job was to work with the budget he had. Being able to spend carte blanche doesn’t guarantee success – just ask any Mets fan!