Washington Nationals Minor League Report: April 17

From staff and wire reports:

Fresno (AAA Pacific Coast League): For the second straight game, the Fresno Grizzlies (8-5) offense roared to life, ousting the Salt Lake Bees (3-9) 17-5 Wednesday night. Jacob Wilson had four of the 18 hits and five of the 17 RBI, which included a solo shot in the seventh. He has five homers in the last four contests. Brandon Snyder also went deep, a towering three-run wallop to the grassy berm in left-center. He finished with four RBI. The Grizzlies have at least one longball in every game this season. Carter KieboomYadiel Hernandez and Matt Reynolds each reached base five times while Raudy Read extended his hit streak to eight games.

Jared Walsh erased the shutout with a towering big fly in the sixth, his fourth of 2019. The Bees added four runs in the last frame, three coming off the bat of Bo Way. Salt Lake starter Forrest Snow (0-2) suffered the loss.

Austin Voth (2-0) enjoyed another decision after five shutout innings. He allowed two hits and one walk while punching out five. Fresno looks for their first sweep of the year tomorrow night.

Top Performers: Fresno Grizzlies (Washington Nationals)

• 3B Jacob Wilson (4-6, HR, 2 2B, 5 RBI, 3 R)

• 1B Brandon Snyder (3-5, HR, 4 RBI, 3 R)

• RHP Austin Voth (5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K)

Top Performers: Salt Lake Bees (Los Angeles Angels)

• 1B Jared Walsh (2-4, HR, RBI, 2 R; 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K)

• RF Bo Way (2-4, 2B, 3 RBI)

ON THAT FRES-NOTE: After homering again Wednesday versus Salt Lake, Jacob Wilson has now gone deep five times in the last four games. Wilson is now tied for the PCL-lead in homers with former Fresno Grizzlies and current Round Rock Express outfielder Yordan Alvarez with seven. Wilson now has 92 career homers.

Harrisburg (AA Eastern League): Ian Sagdal hit a two-run home run and Sterling Sharp tossed seven shutout innings as the Senators beat Altoona 2-0 Wednesday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep of Altoona at PNG Field. Tres Barrera singled and Sagdal hit the first pitch he saw in the second out of the ballpark. That’s all the Sens pitchers needed as Sharp, Jacob Condra-Bogan and Joan Baez combined on a four-hit shut-out. The Senators improved to 12-2 with the win and Altoona drops to 6-7.

Turning Point
After Ian Sagdal‘s two-run home run in the top of the second inning, Altoona loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the second on two hits and a walk. Sterling Sharp was able to induce Brett Pope to hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Beginning with the double play, Sharp retired 13 consecutive batters.

On Capitol Hill
Sterling Sharp was indeed sterling Wednesday afternoon. He faced 23 batters and induced 12 ground ball outs, including three ground ball double plays. He threw just 67 pitches in seven innings of work. Jacob Condra-Bogan pitched the eighth inning and walked the leadoff hitter but retired the next three in order. Joan Baez pitched the ninth and allowed a two-out walk but immediately retired the next batter to end the game.

With the Gavel
Ian Sagdal homered and drove in two runs. No Senator player had two hits but Adrian Sanchez, Chuck Taylor, Tres Barrera and Rhett Wiseman all had hits.

Filibusters
With his single in the second inning, Tres Barrera extended his hitting streak to 9 games.
With their three double plays, the Sens have now turned 16 DPs in 14 games.
The sweep is the first three-game road sweep since June 12-14, 2018 at Reading.
The Sens have played four series thus far and have won all four series.
After 14 games, this is the best start in modern Sens history (since 1987).
Harrisburg is 10-2 against divisional opponents.

On Deck
The Senators open a six-game homestand with the first of three Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against the Reading Fightin Phils. Harrisburg sends RH Tyler Mapes to the mound and he’s opposed by RH Thomas Eshelman for Reading.

Potomac (High-A Carolina League): The Potomac Nationals (6-8) got a brilliant start from RHP Jackson Tetreault , but faltered late as the Lynchburg Hillcats (9-5) scored seven unanswered runs off the Potomac bullpen to win 7-5 on Wednesday afternoon.

Tetreault allowed only two hits over 6.0 scoreless frames, outdueling reigning Carolina League Pitcher of the Week Eli Morgan through the middle innings. But the P-Nats, who led 5-0 at the seventh inning stretch, allowed three runs in the seventh and four in the eighth to drop the three-game series and head back home on a two-game skid.

The Nationals loaded the bases in the first against Morgan, who had not allowed a run through his first two starts for the Hillcats. The righty worked out of the jam to keep the game scoreless, and settled into a groove until the top of the fourth when DH Aldrem Corredor  hit his first home run of the year, a solo shot off the videoboard in right field to put the P-Nats up 1-0.

With a slim lead, Tetreault pitched flawlessly to the Hillcats for his finest start of the year. The righty faced the minimum through four innings, fanning six batters in total and leaving the game in line for his third victory.

Both teams capitalized when the game was turned over to the bullpens. In the top of the seventh, the Nationals greeted RHP Jonathan Teaney with a solo home run from Alex Dunlap  and an RBI single from SS Osvaldo Abreu . LHP Yapson Gomez got the final two outs of the inning for the Hillcats, but not before Corredor brought home his second and third runs of the afternoon with an RBI double down the left field line.

Leading 5-0, P-Nats manager Tripp Keister handed the ball to RHP AJ Bogucki. Just as the Nationals quickly rallied in the top half of the inning, the Hillcats collected back-to-back singles from 3B Nolan Jones and LF Oscar Gonzalez to put Bogucki on the ropes. 1B Gavin Collins got Lynchburg on the board with an RBI single, and with two outs C Mike Rivera brought home two with a single of his own to draw to within a pair.

Potomac left two runners in scoring position against LHP Kyle Nelson (W, 1-0) in the eighth, and would go on to regret that missed opportunity as the Hillcats picked up right where they left off in the bottom half. RHP Jeremy McKinney  (L, 0-1) had trouble locating the strike zone, and loaded the bases with a double and a pair of walks. He then hit Gonzalez in the hand with a pitch to cut Potomac’s lead to one, and two batters later allowed a sacrifice fly to Collins to tie the game 5-5.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth, Rivera came through for the second time in as many innings with a two-run single to put Lynchburg ahead 7-5. It capped a 6-for-12 series for the Hillcats catcher, and gave Nelson a two-run cushion going to the ninth. 3B Anderson Franco  hit a two-out single to bring the tying run to the plate for the Nationals, but Nelson fanned RF Gage Canning  to end the game.

Hagerstown (Low-A South Atlantic League): The Hagerstown Suns, despite another excellent performance from their starting rotation, fell 3-0 to the Lexington Legends Wednesday.

Jake Irvin (L, 0-1) went six innings and allowed an unearned run on three hits, one walk and six strikeouts. Irvin’s six frames matched Tim Cate ‘s six from yesterday-the first time this year Suns starters recorded consecutive quality starts. The bullpen did their part as well. Angel Guillen worked three innings, allowing just one earned run, two total runs, in the loss. 

Hagerstown had one of their three hits go for extra bases but were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. Shortstop Gilbert Lara smacked a double with two outs in the first inning. 

Lexington’s starter Kris Bubic (W, 2-0) struck out eight in five frames. The bullpen took over in the sixth starting with Daniel James . In two relief innings, James allowed nothing on two hits and two punchouts.

Juan Carlos Negret pushed an insurance run across in the ninth following the third Suns error of the afternoon. In the fifth, a throwing error from Jacob Rhinesmith resulted in Reed Rohlman scoring the first Lexington run. A couple of innings later, Nick Hutchins hit his third double of the series, bringing home Rholman again. 

In the past two games, the pitching staffs have combined for six runs (four earned) in 18 innings with 31 strikeouts.

Please follow and like us:

You may also like...

Follow by Email