Thursday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 5-3 | @ Buffalo, 6:05pm | Solesky (4-5, 4.08) vs. Van Eyk (1-1, 5.91) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 8-5 | @ Altoona, 7pm | Cornelio (2-1, 2.50) vs. Ercolani (1-6, 4.19) |
| Wilmington | Lost, 5-3; Lost, 6-0 |
@ Jersey Shore, 7:05pm | Clemmey (3-4, 2.88) vs. Steward 3-7, 5.62) |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 1-0 | @ Delmarva, 6:35pm | Y. Tejeda (3-2, 3.59) vs. Caldon (2-1, 2.75) |
| FCL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. FCL Mets, 10am | |
| DSL Nationals | OFF DAY | vs. DSL Tigers 1, 11am |
Buffalo 5 Rochester 3
• Sinclair 2IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 1K
• Grissom (BS, 2; L, 1-2) 1IP, 4H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, 0K
• Pinckney 2-3, BB
• Schnell 2-5, R, HR, 2RBI, SB
• 1-7 RISP; 11 LOB
Rochester built an early 3-2 lead only to see it go buh-bye in the 5th as Bufflo’s ‘pen held serve to win, 5-3. Jack Sinclair was the opener and gave up a run on one hit. The blown-save-loss was on Marquis Grissom Jr., who was trampled for the aforementioned three runs on four hits during his single inning thrown. Andrew Pinckney reached base three times on a single and two walks while Nick Schnell singled and hit a two-run HR to lead the Red Wings offense. Roster moves: RHP Mason Thompson reassigned from Washington (MLB Rehab).
Altoona 8 Harrisburg 5
• Luckham (L, 4-4) 5IP, 7H, 8R, 4ER, 0BB, 0K, HR, 2WP, BK
• Saenz 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• King 2-4, R, SB, E
• C. De La Cruz 2-5
• Wallace 2-4, 2R, 2B(10), 3B, E
Three Senators errors led to four unearned runs in the 4th as the Curve untracked the Senators, 8-5. Kyle Luckham gave up all eight Altoona runs on seven hits over five innings to take the loss. He walked none and struck out none. Cayden Wallace doubled, tripled, and scored two runs while Seaver King singled twice, scored a run, and stole a base. Both committed an error. Roster moves: RHP Andry Lara recalled by Washington; .
Jersey Shore 5 Wilmington 3 – GM. 1
• Bennett (L, 0-2) 3⅔ IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 1K, PO @ 1B
• Boissiere 3-4, RBI
• Lawson 2-4, 2-2B, RBI
• 3-12 RISP; 8 LOB
Jersey Shore tanned Wilmington for two in the 1st and held off a late charge to take the opener, 5-3. Jake Bennett was tagged for that two-spot and pitched into the 4th after 64 pitches, four hits, two walks, and one (1) strikeout to lose. Branden Boissiere singled three times and drove in a run while Cortland Lawson doubled twice and plated one to lead the Blue Rocks offense.
Jersey Shore 6 Wilmington 0 – GM. 2
• Tolman 3IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 4K, BK
• Cáceres 1IP, 6H, 6R, 6ER, 1BB, 1K
• Petersen 0-2, BB
• Boissiere 0-2, BB
Three BlueClaws pitchers combined to no-hit the Blue Rocks in a 6-0 shutout. Erik Tolman traded MAGAs with Alex MacFarlane for the first three innings before Bryan Cáceres ended the string of zeroes with a six-run 5th that iced the game. Sam Petersen and Branden Boissiere both walked while Caleb Farmer was hit by a pitch to account for the three Wilmington baserunners.
Fredericksburg 1 Delmarva 0
• D. Garcia (W, 4-2) 6IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Montero (H, 1) 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Baldo (SV, 5) 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• K. Diaz 2-3, R, 2E
• Dickerson 1-4, RBI
Fredericksburg shut out Delmarva, 1-0 on three hits. All three singles were allowed by starter Davian Garcia over six innings with no walks and three whiffs to earn his fourth win. Euri Montero put up two goose eggs to earn the hold while Merrick Baldo pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to get the save. Kelvin Diaz singled twice and scored ahead of Luke Dickerson’s RBI single to account for the lone FredNats run.
Bravo to Lara for a terrific MLB cameo yesterday in a turkey of a game: 3 IP, 1 H, 4 K, 0 BB against the same lineup that battered Trevor Williams and Rutledge.
Quite a contrast to his last game in Harrisburg! While he’s certainly not earned a promotion this season, he’s now officially a big leaguer, and you can’t take that away. Let’s hope he can use this as motivation to turn this season around.
A few other good outings across the org:
Davian Garcia had another stellar outing. He’s now got a 0.68 ERA over his past 5 starts. He’s earned a promotion.
Erik Tolman had another strong outing too. He’s had a horrible time with injuries (a torn ACL in 2023), but is looking like he could yet be an interesting piece. At 26 years old, though, he should have a more aggressive promotion plan than most others, especially because his most recent injury wasn’t arm related.
Good competition
Garcia one night
Tejada the next to see if he can QS
With true “ hum, baby ( Roger Craig )
Luke the dogs went on patrol early !?!!?!
Up with the sun ., Bob Seger travelin man.
Yeah
Anyone come across social media links on articles about who else the Nats are bird dog scouting ?
good news on Lara being healthy enough to go three for the big club. will be interesting to see where he’s assigned now. any chance they demote Rutledge and let him work out of the pen in a bit of old school development?
Bennett being monitored much more strictly after the most recent one month shutdown. 25, 41, 54 & 64 pitch counts the last four games.
I’d think Salazar will be the first guy demoted from the bullpen. But with Thompson and Law both rehabbing, there will be a bit of a roster crunch soon. Though it won’t be hard to make space, given that over the past month, after subtracting Poche, Sims and Lopez, the Nats bullpen has still been the worst in MLB.
Oh wait, I forgot about Loutos…
Law had a setback and was shutdown again. Sounding like he may not return this season.
He pitched yesterday.
Oh wow, that’s a blast from the past. Bobby Milacki faced the Red Wings yesterday. Milacki was 38th round pick in 2018, who we released in 2020, after showing mediocre stuff in Auburn in 2019.
Good for him to see he’s made it all the way up to AAA after bouncing around multiple orgs, and is doing well enough there (sub 4 ERA)!
FanGraphs posted a good interview with Cavalli: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/armed-with-a-revamped-heater-cade-cavalli-eyes-a-healthy-return-to-dc/
Interesting to hear him so informed and reflective on biomechanics and Statcast-focused stats/pitch movements. It’s interesting insight into the technical stuff that goes into pitching and injury recovery.
thanks for that link. from an organizational standpoint I’d be curious to know who he means when he says “we’ve made some changes”. Hanrahan? Chaves? others?
I too would be quite curious. His usage of “we” instead of “I” strongly suggests this was an external thing, and not something he worked out himself.
In that interview with Longosz from a few weeks back, he talked about developing plans for all pitchers with Sam Narron, the Nats’ minor league pitching coordinator. Perhaps it could be him? But with Cavalli out of action for basically the last 2 years, it could’ve also been someone from outside the org. The Post wrote an article this winter about Wood and some other Nats players getting advice from Gerardo Caceras, an independent MD-based hitting coach. I’d expect pitchers are also doing the same. I vaguely recall Sykora talking about a non-Nats affiliated coach working with him in the winter after he was drafted by the Nats.
After this morning’s/afternoon’s FCL Nats game, 2025 Elijah Green (21 YO) has had almost the same amount of FCL plate appearances as 2022 Elijah (18 YO). Here are the numbers:
2022:
49 PA
43 AB
13 H
23 TB
4 2B
2 HR
6 BB
21 K
1 SB
.302 AVG .404 OBP .535 SLG
2025:
47 PA
38 AB
9 H
2 2B
0 HR
9 BB
14 K
3 SB
.237 AVG .383 OPB .289 SLG
The good news: EG’s K rate per plate appearance has improved from 43% to 30% and the walk rate rose from 12% to 20%. FWIW, 30% is still too high.
The bad news: no power with only 2 extra base hits and no HRs. Also, in 2022, Green was almost 2 years younger than league average; in 2025 he is 1.5 years older than league average. He is essentially a college junior playing in league with HS seniors, college freshman and sophomores.
The small sample size (just less than 50 PAs) means that can’t make too many conclusions about Green, as his BABIP was crazy high in 2022 and is crazy low in 2025, but fair to say at this point, Green’s progress in the “overhaul” is at best TBD.