Saturday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Probable Pitchers |
| Syracuse | Won, 4-3 | vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, 1:05 p.m. |
Voth (0-1, 3.00) vs. Haynes (1-0, 4.50) |
| Harrisburg | Lost, 6-3 | @ Bowie, 6:35 p.m. |
Williams (0-2, 10.57) vs. C. Lee (2-0, 3.65) |
| Potomac | Won, 5-2 | @ Wilmington, 7:05 p.m. |
Valdez (2-1, 7.36) vs. Lovvorn (0-3, 5.54) |
| Hagerstown | Won, 6-5 | vs. Hickory, 6:05 p.m. |
A. Lee (1-0, 1.80) vs. W. Benjamin (1-0, 1.00) |
Syracuse 4 Lehigh Valley 3
• Hill 4⅔ IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, 5BB, 7K, HR
• De Los Santos (W, 1-0) 1⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, BB, 1K, 2-0 IR-S
• Martinson 1-2, R, 3B, 2BB, 2RBI
• Goodwin 1-3, R, 2B, BB, RBI
Jason Martinson’s two-run triple in the bottom of the 5th answered Lehigh Valley’s volley in the top half of the inning while the Syracuse bullpen locked it down for a 4-3 win. Starter Taylor Hill got the no-decision with all three RailRider runs allowed on five hits, capped by a two-run homer and his fourth and fifth walks before he was given the hook with two outs in the 5th. Abel De Los Santos stranded both runners and pitched a scoreless 6th for the win. Martinson also walked twice and scored a run to lead he Chiefs’ five-hit, four-walk offense.
Bowie 6 Harrisburg 3
• Giolito 4+ IP, 5H, 2R, 2ER, 4BB, 2K, 81-48 P-K
• Bacus (BS, 2; L, 1-1) 2IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 3BB, 1K, HBP
• Collier 2-4, R, 2B
• Dykstra 1-3, BB
The Sens ‘pen couldn’t hold a 2-1 lead as the BaySox struck for five runs in the middle innings en route to a 6-3 win. Lucas Giolito labored through four innings and gave up two runs on five hits and four walks while striking out just two. The blown-save-loss went to Dakota Bacus, who was knifed by Bowie batters for four runs on four hits and three walks over two innings. Veteran Zach Collier singled and doubled and scored a run to lead Harrisburg’s nine-hit parade. Roster move: RHP Derek Self reassigned from Potomac.
Potomac 5 Wilmington 2
• Reyes (W, 1-2) 6IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, BB, 2K, HR
• Orlan (H, 2) 2IP, 0H, 0R, 2BB, 1K
• Mejia 3-4
• Stevenson 3-5, 2R, 2B
• Abreu 2-5, R, 2B
Unfortunately, Potomac cannot play in Wilmington for 140 games, but they’ve won all six at Frawley so far, including last night by a 5-2 score. Luis Reyes lost the shutout bid on a two-run blast off the bat of Ryan O’Hearn but won for the first time in three starts with six innings pitched and six hits and one walk allowed. He struck out two. R.C. Orlan pitched two scoreless for the hold (his second) while Koda Glover set the side down in order for the save (ditto). Bryan Mejia and Andrew Stevenson both had three hits to lead the P-Nats attack.
Hagerstown 6 Hickory 5
• DeRosier 5IP, 6H, 5R, 4ER, 3BB, 7K, HR
• Pantoja 2IP, 1H, 0R, BB, 3K
• Peterson (W, 2-0) 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 1K
• Page 2-4, R, BB, HR, 3RBI
• Davidson 2-3, R, 2B, BB
• Gutierrez 3-5, 2R
The Suns wasted no time in erasing a 5-3 deficit in the 9th as back-to-back singles by Max Schrock and Kelvin Gutierrez were followed by a three-run walkoff home run by Matthew Page for a 6-5 win over the Crawdads. The comeback gave Tommy Peterson his second win, as he matched fellow reliever Jorge Pantoja with two scoreless innings. Starter Matt DeRosier was ineffective, charged with all five Hickory runs on six hits and three walks over five innings, though he did set down seven on strikes. Cody Dent was the beer man in a 14-hit night by Hagerstown, with Page, Gutierrez, and Austin Davidson each reaching base three times. Roster move: RHP Mick VanVossen reassigned from Potomac.
Abreu and Gutierrez – seem like they are off to good starts and get some love in the prospect lists. They look borderline old for their leagues, esp. Gutierrez. I generally think this is one of the better rules of thumb to follow, although of course there can be exceptions. So, real prospects, or more org guys? I assume Gutierrez’ lack of pop at 3b has to negate his ceiling to a large degree, and that Abreu is the better prospect between the two.
I guess I am asking if the Latin kids get a bit of a pass on ‘age v league’ rule of thumb due to the very real difficulty of moving to a new country as a teenager, etc
The Nats don’t seem too concerned about pushing the Latin players ahead to keep up with age/level expectations. Both Difo (’14) and Orange (’15) were a bit older during their big seasons in Hagerstown but stayed for the whole year (with Difo then aggressively promoted in ’15). Both of those guys “found” some power in that Hagerstown year. Perhaps they’re hoping the same will happen with Gutierrez. He’s got a big frame (6’3″), prompting a “who’s that?” from me when he was a late-inning sub in a spring game I saw on TV. He had the size of an MLB regular.
With the Latin kids, it’s often not just language and culture, it’s also nutrition, strength training, advanced fundamentals, etc. There were stories about how much Difo benefited from weight/strength training.
That’s KW, that’s helpful.
Btw, I think there could be hidden benefit to Giolito scuffling a bit now. Let him learn to adjust without the bright lights of the majors/playoff race.
Well, the big club’s alleged “5th starter” just struck out 15, so I’m not sure where the opening is for Giolito is . . . unless they’re going to demote Scherzer. (Kidding, of course.) Anyway, there seems to be no rush for Giolito and his current 1.800 WHIP. The good news there is that he mostly seems to have been able to work out of difficulty from all those base runners.
That’s = Thanks