Last Night In Woodbridge
Potomac is swept to extend losing streak to four
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not easy to write about a blowout like this one (a 13-7 Potomac loss to Kinston, their fourth straight). You can be mean-spirited and lay into the poor pitching, piling on, kicking a man when he’s down (is there a better time?). Or you can cherry-pick the one or two good performances in the losing cause (Jose Lozada, 3-for-4 with two doubles, Justin Bloxom, 3-for-5), glossing over the contradictions (both had throwing errors).
Neither approach really serves you, the reader, all that well.
Potomac’s record is 18-27, a .400 winning percentage. They’ve scored 195 runs, allowed 234, which is fourth-best and dead last in the Carolina League, respectively. Their pythagorean projection has them at .392 or .409, depending on which formula you use. I’m not very good at math, but you can split the difference and see that .4005 is pretty damn close to .400.
As Bill Parcells famously once said “You are what your record says you are.”
Mitchell Clegg started this game with two quick outs and then loaded the bases with walks on either side of a hit batsmen. He then surrendered a bases-clearing triple and finally got out of the inning after pitching to the ninth batter. The second inning saw an error (Lozada’s) followed by a homer, a single (the only one surrendered), a long double to dead center, a flyout to center, a strikeout, then another long double to center.
Clegg was lifted with two outs, and his ledger filled when reliever Joe Testa was treated much the same with a double to… wait for it… center (don’t blame CF J.R. Higley — These balls were launched). The ‘pen may have faltered, but it was 8-0 after two, and it’s hard to pin much on group that has been asked to go one more inning or take one less day off more often than not
As the 13-7 score indicates, the P-Nats were able to muster some offense; unlike football, there’s no prevent defense. Joining Lozada and Bloxom in the hit parade was Eury Perez, who went 2-for-2 with sacrifice hit and a sacrifice fly and two RBI. Only Steve Souza went hitless as the team collected 13 total. On most nights, that would be more than enough.
Today is a badly needed day off for Potomac, the last scheduled off day of the first half. The homestand resumes on Friday with four games against the last-place Lynchburg Hillcats (doubleheader on Saturday).
With the Nationals’ player development hierarchy in the stands to watch the debacle, expect changes. This is the worst defensive team I have ever seen, although that could have been predicted. The starting pitchers cannot get past the fist inning without giving up three runs. And the bullpen, well, other than having a great closer who can’t close because there is never a lead, the bullpen has been poor. On paper, this should have been the best team in the league, and maybe the best team in the organization. It’s not time to send some of these guys to Hagerstown or Auburn, it’s time to do some releasing.
I’ll be at the game on Friday, and have attended about 3 or 4 others. My question though is this, This group of prospects lead by the same manager Matt LeCroy “underperfomed” last year in Hagerstown. Do you think it’s the prospects or do you think it’s the coaching… As a long time PNats fan I can certainly say that these guys are not as good as the group Managers Randy Knorr or Trent Jewett had in previous years. However, don’t you think it’s time to get a fresh face or a different style in front of these guys and try to shake things up? Why is Mitchell Clegg still on this team? I believe he has had 1 good outing and the rest have been hideous? The pitching with the exception of Rosenbaum is horrible.