Wednesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Won, 5-4 (10 inn.) |
vs. Buffalo, 6:05pm | Luckham (0-1, 4.63) vs. Yesavage (0-0, 4.40) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 7-3 | vs. Akron, 6:30pm | Eder (MiLB Rehab) vs. Maltrud (3-3, 4.76) |
| Fredericksburg | Lost, 2-1 | OFF DAY | N/A |
Rochester 5 Buffalo 4 (10 inn.)
• Solesky 5IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 4K, HR, WP
• E. Mejia (BS, 2) ⅔ IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 1K
• Loutos (W, 2-0) 1⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 2K, 2-0 IR-S
• Glasser 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI
• Morales 2-5, 2R, 2B
• Lipscomb 2-5, R, HR(10), 4RBI
Rochester blew a 4-2 lead in the 9th but pushed the free runner across in the 10th to win the series opener vs. Buffalo, 5-4. Chase Solesky turned in five innings of two-run ball on four hits and three walks while striking out four. He was in line for the “W” until Erick Mejia gave up two runs on three hits in the 9th. Ryan Loutos stranded two while cleaning up Mejia’s mess in the 9th, then worked a scoreless 10th to get the win. Trey Lipscomb drove in the game-winner and also hit a three-run HR to lead the Red Wings offense while Phillip Glasser singled, walked, and tripled in his AAA debut. Roster moves: OF Christian Franklin placed on 7-Day I.L., retroactive to 9/8.
Akron 7 Harrisburg 3
• Clemmey 5⅔ IP, 6H, 2R, 1ER, 0BB, 7K, HR
• Huff (L, 5-3) ⅓ IP, 3H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 0K
• King 2-4, R, 2B, RBI
• Wallace 2-4
The wheels came off the bus in the 7th as the RubberDucks scored five runs to take a 7-2 lead and held on for the 7-3 win. Alex Clemmey was one out short of back-to-back quality starts, as the 20-y.o. allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits (one HR), walked none, and struck out seven. Chance Huff retired just one of five batters faced as he let in four runs on three hits and a walk with an “assist” from Lucas Knowles (2-2 IR-S). Seaver King singled, doubled, and drove in a run while Cayden Wallace had two safeties to lead the Senators offense.
Lynchburg 2 Fredericksburg 1
• Sullivan 4IP, 5H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 5K
• Maddox (L, 0-1) 2⅔ IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 5K
• Moore 1IP, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 0K, 2-1 IR-S
• Bazzell 2-3, R, BB, HR, RBI
• Willits 1-3, BB, 2B
Fredericksburg’s pitchers scattered nine singles through six and 2/3rds before the 10th drove in the game-winner to give Lynchburg a 2-1 win and two chances to win the CLDS at home. FredNats starter Liam Sullivan struck out five and and gave up five over four innings before giving way to Riley Maddox, who took the loss. Kevin Bazzell homered for the sole Fredericksburg run, walked, and singled while Eli Willits doubled and walked. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-25 with a walk and 11 strikeouts.
Congrats to Bazzell for his first career professional HR! Unfortunately, as it’s the playoffs, it won’t appear in his statlines.
Really, really good outing from Clemmey. I think I’ve said it before, but I’d rather see players struggle and overcome those struggles than guys who just rocket up the farm ladder without any adversity.
House was a really good example of a player that routinely took time to adapt, and eventually figured things out. But I’m still waiting for things to click for him in the majors. He’s had a few false dawns so far. A similar story with Dylan Crews, who faced a lot less adversity in the minors.
On the other hand, Daylen Lile is looking like a legitimate major leaguer. We desperately need to assign a coach to work on his defense over the winter, because it’s horrific. But his bat looks good enough to play at DH. I wonder what exactly the problem is with Lile’s defensive work. Does he not know how to read the ball? Because he’s certainly fast enough and has a good arm that his physical gifts should be able to compensate. But man, he currently rates as one of the worst defender in the game at any position. That needs to change.
Bummer to see Franklin get injured. Has there been any reports on what’s wrong with him? Hope it’s not serious, because that could devastate his trade value.
There’s no reason why Daylen Lile can’t be at least an average defensive outfielder. He’s an elite athlete and fast with great hand/eye cooridination. Also, feel like Lile’s defensive struggles have been somewhat fluky and related to adapting to playing in big league ballparks as Lile didn’t come to the bigs with the rep of being a poor defensive player.
Fangraphs on Lile: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/a-rookie-on-the-rise-daylen-lile-is-raking-in-washington/
Wow, talk about a timely article!
Too bad they didn’t touch on his defense at all… I’d love to hear a scout’s take on is defense.
But looking a bit deeper at the defensive stats, he’s actually been an average defender in LF, but awful in right. There could be something to this, as Lile actually played significantly more LF (156 games) than RF (45 games) in the minors, which is actually the exact opposite of James Wood. Wood played primarily as a CF in the minors (176 g), next followed by RF (52 g) and then LF (26 g), and Wood also looked really bad last season in LF, but would occasionally pull off some outrageously good play in LF, that made me confident that Wood had the talent, he just needed time to adapt to LF (and he still does, as he’s still been quite poor defensively). I haven’t seen any of those sorts of signs from Lile yet. But perhaps that’s more down to a lack of chances, than anything at all. But Lile SHOULD be good defensively. He’s exceptionally fast, he’s got a good arm. He’s just seems to be lacking good coaching, making good routes and reading balls off the bat. Hope that’ll come with the new coaching/management shake ups.
Sorry, clicked post too soon. I wonder if there’d be a bump just by swapping Wood and Lile. If they are both more comfortable on opposite sides of the outfield, why not let them play there? They both certainly couldn’t rate much worse than they presently are.
What is DD Seniors rotation looking like after today’s bullpen conga line ? Tomorrow night versus Runber Duckies ?
Choi ?
Nats name their AFL reps:
Pitchers:
Pablo Adonis
Austin Amaral
Jake Bennett
Sean Paul Linan
Jared Simpson
Positon players:
Seaver King, Sam Peterson, Ethan Petry
Petersen lives!