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Wednesday’s News & Notes

Team Yesterday Today Pitching Probables
Rochester Won, 6-4 vs. Lehigh Valley, 6:05 p.m. TBD vs. Anderson (4-2, 4.65)
Harrisburg Won, 5-4 vs. Bowie, 1 p.m. Alvarez (0-2, 3.68)vs. Bright (0-0, 2.08)

Rochester 6 Lehigh Valley 4
• Abbott (W, 3-4) 5IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 6K, PTV
• Rainey 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Dunn 1-2, R, BB, SAC
• Tostado 1-3, R, BB, 2B
• Noll 1-4, R, 2B

Rochester flirted with a no-no for seven and a 1/3rd then made a run at blowing a 6-0 lead but held on to take the series opener, 6-4. Cory “Don’t Call Me Roger” Abbott went the first five with one walk and six whiffs. Tanner Rainey struck out the side in the 6th and Tim Cate pitched a 1-2-3 seventh before Luis Reyes lost both the no-hitter and the shutout in the 8th. The Red Wings converted seven hits and six walks into six runs, led by Jack Dunn and Frankie Tostado both reaching base twice with a single, a walk, and a run scored. Roster moves: UT Paul Witt activated from Development List

Harrisburg 5 Bowie 4
• Saenz (W, 5-5) 6IP, 7H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 5K, HR
• Schoff (SV, 6) 1⅓ IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 4K
• Hassell 3-4, 2R
• Crews 2-4, R, 2B(5), 2RBI
• Arruda 1-2, R, BB, RBI, SB(30)
• 0:03 delay

The Senators broke a five-game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the BaySox. Dustin Saenz turned in his eighth quality start with two runs let in on seven hits (one HR) over six innings. He walked none and struck out five while winning his 5th AA contest. Cole Henry coughed up a two-run HR in the 8th to keep his ERA in four digits (10.90) but Tyler Schoff retired the last four batters in order to pick up his sixth AA save. Roster moves: IF Lucius Fox released; UT Terone Harris placed on Development List; IF Yohandy Morales, OF Andrew Pinckney reassigned from Wilmington.




25 Commments

  1. Farewell, Lucius Fox. Joining the org with an underwhelming .230/.339/.344 over his previous two seasons, he hit an underwhelming .236/.315/.337 in two seasons with the Nats. He’ll always have those 10 games of big league experience! Just don’t look any closer at his stat line there…

    Interesting that Morales didn’t play. Looks like they may use his to back up House at 3B, rather than trying him out at 1B so late in the season.

  2. Two dominant performances from our relievers. Rainey and Schoff faced 7 batters and struck out 7 batters. It’s really encouraging to see Rainey finding his stride after a rocky rehab start. Schoff has been an under-the-radar prospect. After his promotion to AA, he’s very quietly bested his already solid performance in Wilmington, posting a 2.81 ERA, and hasn’t allowed a run in almost a month. His peripherals are good too. Add him to the growing list of potential bullpen relief in 2024.

    1. Fitting that I’m in Austin Tx as I read about JR getting the call up .
      Way to go JR.
      Irwin , Adon and now JR. The retool narrative fleshes out .

      Meanwhile Adon last night might have conjured up a few Bob Uecker lines : Jussst a bit outside , Joan !

    2. The amazing part about Schoff is he was an undrafted free agent. The odds on those guys are astronomic. Good for him!

  3. Sorry, last post for now. But here’s an interesting statistic: Cory Abbott has thrown 12 games in the minors and 16 in the majors this season. But every single minor league game he’s started, but every major league game, he’s been in relief.
    It’s a really strange approach. If there isn’t space for him to start in DC, why not give him an extended run in relief in Rochester and get him used to the different tempo/preparation to be a reliever? Or conversely, when there’s a hole in the bullpen in DC, why use a starter (Abbott) from Rochester to plug it? An actual reliever, Gerson Moreno, has been available as an option all year.

  4. Lucia’s Fox was an international sign by the Giants out of the Bahamas for $6 million. He just never hit.
    Last year was his claim to fame with 25 AB’s in The Show with the Nats and an OPS of .195.

    Yoyo Morales & Andrew Pinckney had identical wRC+ of 153 for the year (100 is average) before last night’s game.

  5. Davey Martinez must be smiling looking at the Sens lineup last night and from here on out for seasons curtain fall .

  6. It was a great night on the island (except for the skunk). Nice to see hits from the prospects and good pitching. Schoff mixed his fastball and slider to get those four strikeouts.

    1. What was your take on Henry? It looked like he was cruising until suddenly he wasn’t and he’d given up two runs.

      1. I would say inconsistent. He hit 97 on the radar, but walked a couple also. The 2 runs were on a no doubt homer to left.

      2. very good velocity, no so good command (again). from his body language it appears that he’s getting a little impatient with the process.

  7. It will be interesting to see how AAA goes next year, as young talent pushes its way upward and becomes potential callups for the Nats. AA also should improve, for the same reason.

  8. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a hitter in an MLB batter’s box with more of a deer-in-the-headlights look than Lucius Fox. “Overmatched” doesn’t even begin to cover it. That said, I don’t mind the Nats taking flyers on these types of guys as they have had success with folks like Finnegan and Harvey and at least some with Meneses and Garrett.

    Good to see Hassell and Crews hitting and perhaps building some positive mojo over the last week. Not so good to see that Wood K’d three more times and that Henry struggled again.

    1. I could be wrong, but I think lately the Nats have really emphasized defense up the middle with the thinking that it will indirectly help their minor league pitchers.

      Fox, Made, Cruz, Barley, Infante – all guys with weak bats but strong defense and / or athleticism

    2. Todd wrote when he saw the Senators in Richmond that Fox looked like he didn’t want to be there. He must have known the end was near with his sub .500 OPS.

  9. In my post the other day about the DiPuglia resignation I had mentioned that while I wished he stayed ( despite his uneven track record lately), I had instead why they kept scouting director Kris Kline.

    Sure enough, I just read he was removed from that position and re-assigned as an assistant to Rizzo

    About time!

  10. one year ago Rutledge took the mound and threw eight scoreless playoff innings in front of a packed house in Fburg. you ain’t in Low A ball anymore my boy. go right after ’em tonight and enjoy the experience. hopefully good karma to be had from a notable debut against the Bucs a while back. good luck!

    1. I’m glad that they’re getting Rutledge up for a handful of MLB starts this season. Time to find out what they’ve got. Hoping for the best, but his overall AAA numbers are not exactly exciting. It is good perspective, though, to remember that he spent all of last season four levels below the majors.

      1. Irvin’s AAA numbers weren’t that great either and at this point he’s developed into a solid back end of the rotation starter. I’m not expecting a lot in 1-3 starts but it’s good that Rutledge’s getting a taste of the majors in the event he’s part of the rotation in the spring

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