Wednesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Won, 10-1 | vs. Worcester, 6:05pm | Perales (0-3, 4.91) vs. Gamboa (0-1, 8.59) |
| Harrisburg | Won, 3-0 | @ Akron, 6:35pm | D. Garcia (1-2, 2.30) vs. Favors (1-2, 2.57) |
| Wilmington | Won, 10-2 | vs. Asheville, 11:05am | Polanco (0-0, 7.24) vs. TBD |
| Fredericksburg | Won, 13-12 | vs. Hickory, 11:05am | Sime (0-2, 4.09) vs. Deakins (1-0, 0.69) |
Rochester 10 Worcester 1
• Champlain (W, 1-0) 5IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 4K
• Tolman 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Lipscomb 3-4, R, RBI
• Crews 2-4, R, BB, 3B, RBI
• Morales 2-4, 2R, BB, HR, RBI
• Chapparro 2-5, 2R
Rochester broke open a 2-1 game with a four-run 4th, then piled on three more in the 5th en route to a 10-1 demolition of Worcester. Chandler Champlain gave up the lone (ugh) WooSox run on three hits and two walks over five innings to pick up the win. Trey Lipscomb led the 13-hit parade with three singles while Yoyo Morales homered, singled, and walks and Dylan Crews reached base three times on a walk, triple, and a single. Roster moves: CF Levi Jordan activated from the Development List.
Harrisburg 3 Akron 0
• Clemmey (W, 1-1) 6IP, 1H, 0R, 2BB, 6K
• Simpson (H, 5) 2IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Mejia (SV, 3) 1IP, 1H, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• King 2-4, 2B, RBI, CS(5)
• Petersen 2-4, R, 2SB
• Lomavita 1-3, R, 3B, SF, RBI, E(7)
Led by Alex Clemmey, three Senators pitchers comnined on three-hit shutout of the RubberDucks, 3-0. Clemmey went the first six, allowing one hit and two walks, ans striking out six to win his first game of ’26. Harrisburg racked up ten hits, with two apiece by Seaver King, the two Sams (Brown, Petersen), and Jack Rogers but scored twice on sac flies with King and Petersen connecting for the two Sens doubles. Roster moves: LHP Shinnosuke Ogasawara demoted from Rochester.
Fredericksburg 13
• Maddox 3⅔ IP, 5H, 2R, 0ER, 0BB, 4K, HBP, WP, PO @ 1B
• Baldo (W, 1-2) 2⅓ IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• R. Cruz 3-5, 2R, 3B, RBI, SB
• Fitz-Gerald 2-4, 3R, BB, 3B, HR, 3RBI
• Hines 2-5, R, 2B
• Petry 2-5, RBI
Wilmington broke a 2-2 deadlock with a five-run 6th, highlighted by back-to-back two-out triples by Devin Fitz-Gerald and Ronny Cruz. A three-run 8th put the game on ice for 10-2 sportswriters win. Riley Maddox wobbled through three and 2/3rds innings, giving up two unearned runs, hitting a batter, and striking out four. Merrick Baldo got the last out of the 4th and put up two goose eggs to get the win, his first of the year. Fitz-Gerald also walked and homered while Cruz singled twice and scored twice to lead the Blue Rocks offense.
Frederickburg 13 Hickory 12
• Meckley 4IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 7K, HR, WP
• Minckler (W, 2-1) 2IP, 3H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 3K
• Rojas (SV, 1) 1IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 1K, BK, WP
• Walsh 3-5, R, 3B, HR, 5RBI
• Williams 2-4, 2R, 2-2B, RBI
• Moroknek 2-3, R, BB
• Cabrera 1-3, 2R, 2BB, 2B, RBI
The FredNats offense built an 11-0 lead then tried to take the night off. Xander Meckley labored through four innings, needing 70 pitches to get 12 outs as the was stung for two-run HR and four hits total while walking one, and striking out seven. The bullpen beer was passed from Ryan Minckler (2IP, 4R), to Levi Huesman (same), to Cesar Rojas (1IP, 2R) who got his one and only strikeout with the tying run at third for the rulebook save. Jacob Walsh, who had singled and tripled in the early going, hit a two-run HR in the 8th that gave him RBI nos. four and five on the night and provided the margin for error that Rojas tested. Jordan Williams doubled twice while Jack Moroknek singled twice to extend his hit streak to 16 games.
A big day for both the bats and pitching (except in Fredericksburg)!
I know I’m a broken record on this, but Yohandy Morales continues to make prospect watchers look foolish.
“Hit hit tool just isn’t as good as advertised.” Well, he’s hitting .333 through 26 games!
“He doesn’t hit for enough power.” His SLG now sits at .506.
“He’s positionless.” He seems to be playing pretty good 3B defense!
“He strikes out too much.” His K% is at an acceptable 26%.
If you described this player, he’d sound like a top 100 prospect, and yet FanGraphs just left him entirely off their top 41 list in the Nats org! I’ll never understand it.
But if there’s any silver lining to this, it’s that Morales will likely soon get a chance to prove himself in DC with absolutely no pressure. He’s easily the most underrated prospect I’ve ever witnessed in this org.
While on the topic of corner infielders, it was a good day down the affiliates.
Devin Fitz-Gerald is living up to the hype. He’s a 5 tool prospect. He’s hitting for power (.507 SLG) , stealing bases (10 in 18 G), got a good eye (13 BB%, 17 K%), and a defensive Swiss army knife (played almost equally between 3B, SS and 2B this season).
Jacob Walsh has caught my attention. He had a disastrous 2025, but it seems that with a bit more luck (his BABIP jumped from .184 to .276 this season, the prodigious power he showed in college has come with it. I wonder, though, if his profile will always be a sort of 3 true outcomes kind of guy. He’s got a solid walk rate, but big strikeout numbers, so his .236 AVG isn’t anything special, but a .382 OBP is. Like Moroknek, as a 23 year old, he should be one of the first out of Fredericksburg, if he can keep this up.
Some less good things:
King’s 5 caught stealing in 8 attempts… a 38% success rate, yikes! King’s 5 CS this season are as many as he had in his previous 145 games (he was previously 40 for 45 before this season). What’s up with that?
Caleb Lomavita committed his 7th error in 14 games… Luke can you start a tracker for this? This is an historical pace. I just looked and so far Lomavita’s errors have been: 4 throws, 2 catcher interferences and 1 “pickoff” which is unclear to me how that’s different from a “throw”. Also of note, Lomavita’s previously excellent efforts to limit stolen bases (aside from the errant throws) has nosedived this season. He’s 3 for 30 so far (had a 26 CS% across his previous 2 seasons).
Good spot on Lomavita’s defense.
It was bad last year (21 errors which is awful for a catcher), and the hope was that maybe with new leadership, Caleb’s defense would improve…. Nope. It’s somehow worsened… 7 errors in 14 games would be bad for a player trying to catch at the professional level for the first time. Add in the 10%% CS rate and wow… at some point, he may have to try another position to remain a professional baseball player.
With BB on DL
DeShields Sr will utilize
Romero Jr more in line up I bet
Green: 0-4 with 4 strikeouts.
That’s 50 Ks in 20 games.
It’s almost as if the farm director is purposely playing him to make a point, to get his stats so god-awful that when he gets released nobody can question the move.
Agreed , Todd.
Meanwhile a real bummer about BB @ AA going on the 60 day DL
Shoulder ? Deeper story ?
Am I not mistaken but wasn’t Chad Tracy a Mike Rizxo draft pick in Arizona ?
Can we give Rochester the benefit of the doubt since playing in upstate NY pre – May blooms and warmer temps makes for “ yo – yo “
Performances ?
I still think back to an Expo Floyd Youmanns pitching at Wriglry matinee with his number one heater 100 pct as the lake effect made it below 40 f in April .
Perhaps the guy at FRED playing the walk up music for Nats should play Paul Simons 50 ways to leave your lover
For Coy James
“ don’t need to be Coy , Roy “