Washington Nationals Minor League Report: April 20 and 21
From staff and wire reports:
Fresno (AA Pacific Coast League):
Saturday: The Fresno Grizzlies (9-7) were shutout for the first time this season, falling to the Las Vegas Aviators (14-3) 11-0 Saturday night. Fresno had homered in 15 straight games to start their season, but two Las Vegas arms changed that. Daniel Mengden (3-0, win) had a no-hitter going into the sixth, finishing the contest with seven tremendous innings, allowing two hits and three walks while punching out seven. Then, Miguel Romero hurled the final two frames, fanning four.
Jose Marmolejos doubled to end the no-hit bid and Brandon Snyder laced a single for the Grizzlies. Brady Dragmire dazzled for two innings of relief while Kyle McGowin (1-2) suffered the decision.
Corban Joseph mashed four hits with two leaving the yard. He scored three times and drove in another three. Seth Brown added a big fly and two RBI while Skye Bolt tripled and plated three for the Aviators.
Top Performers: Fresno Grizzlies (Washington Nationals)
• RHP Brady Dragmire (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K)
• LF Jose Marmolejos (1-3, 2B)
• 1B Brandon Snyder (1-4)
Top Performers: Las Vegas Aviators (Oakland Athletics)
• RHP Daniel Mengden (7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K)
• DH Corban Joseph (4-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R)
• RF Skye Bolt (2-5, 3B, 3 RBI, 2 R)
ON THAT FRES-NOTE: Thanks to the Las Vegas three-game sweep of Sacramento April 9-11 to open brand new Las Vegas Ballpark, Sunday’s Grizz victory gave Fresno the first visiting win in each of the last two new facilities to open in the PCL. On April 28, 2014, the San Francisco Giants-affiliated Grizzlies defeated the El Paso Chihuahuas 2-1 in the inaugural game at Southwest University Park.
Sunday: The Fresno Grizzlies (10-7) won a 9-8 barn burner over the Las Vegas Aviators (14-4) Sunday afternoon. In a back-and-forth contest, an eighth inning homer by Jose Marmolejos kept the pendulum on the Grizzlies side in the end. Brandon Snyderwent deep twice, two three-run clouts in the first and seventh. The latter of the two knotted the game at eight. Alec Keller smoked his first dinger of the season and Carter Kieboom added two hits and RBI.
Skye Bolt led the offensive charge for Las Vegas, smashing a grand slam in the fourth inning. That is his second grand slam against Fresno this season. Jorge Mateo and Beau Taylor each recorded RBI doubles in the defeat.
Reliever Tanner Rainey (2-1) earned the decision while Jimmy Cordero picked up his third save.Wei-Chung Wang (1-1) suffered the loss in relief for the Aviators.
Top Performers: Fresno Grizzlies (Washington Nationals)
• 1B Brandon Snyder (2-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 2 R)
• RF Alec Keller (2-4, HR, 2B, RBI, R)
• LF Jose Marmolejos (2-4, HR, RBI, R)
Top Performers: Las Vegas Aviators (Oakland Athletics)
• CF Skye Bolt (2-4, HR, 4 RBI, 2 R)
• SS Jorge Mateo (2-5, 2B, RBI, R)
• LF Mark Payton (2-4, 2 R)
ON THAT FRES-NOTE: At 14-4, three of Las Vegas’s losses have come to Fresno; they have the second-best record in professional baseball, one game behind the Harrisburg Senators (14-2) of the Eastern League, the Nationals’ Double-A affiliate. Las Vegas has lost three of their four day games as well.
Harrisburg (AA Eastern League):
Saturday: The Senators improbably came back and won Saturday afternoon in walk-off fashion defeating the Reading Fightin Phils 3-2 in front of 3,851 at FNB Field. Chuck Taylor was the hero Saturday driving in Luis Sardinas with a two-out single to win the game. Earlier in the ninth Tyler Goeddelhit a sac fly to score Bryan Mejia with the tying run. Ben Braymer started and pitched well, allowing two unearned runs. James Bourque pitched a scoreless ninth for the win. He’s now 2-0 while Addison Russ took the loss to fall to 0-2. Harrisburg has won five straight and is 14-2 overall while Reading falls to 6-7.
Turning Point
In the last of the ninth trailing 2-1, Tres Barrera singled through the vacated right side of the infield to put the tying run on base with no outs. Bryan Mejia pinch ran for Barrera and stole second then went to third on a throwing error. He scored on a sac fly by Tyler Goeddel to tie the game. The Senators went on to win when Chuck Taylor singled in Luis Sardinas.
On Capitol Hill
Ben Braymer started and pitched six innings allowing two unearned runs on two hits. Braymer gave up a two-run home run after an error in the sixth inning. It’s his third straight solid outing. Ronald Pena pitched a scoreless seventh and pitched around two walks and stranded the bases loaded. Taylor Guilbeau tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning with a strikeout. James Bourque worked around a two-out walk in the ninth to earn the win.
With the Gavel
Tres Barrera had two hits including the single to start the ninth inning. Austin Davidson, Rhett Wiseman, Luis Sardinas and Chuck Taylor were the only other Senators with a hit. Two of three runs scored on sacrifice flies off the bats of Tyler Goeddel and Wiseman.
Filibusters
The Senators are a perfect 14-0 on any day but Sunday.
After 16 games, this is the best start in modern Sens history (since 1987).
The Sens have had three winning streaks of at least four games.
It was the third walk-off win for the Senators this season.
It’s the third series sweep for the Senators (Hartford and Altoona)
On Deck
After a day off Sunday, the Senators are in action Monday night against the Altoona Curve. Harrisburg sends RH Wil Crowe to the mound against RH Dario Agrazal.
Sunday: OFF.
Potomac (High-A Carolina League):
Saturday: After rain washed out all five Carolina League games on Friday night, the Potomac Nationals (7-10) and Winston-Salem Dash (8-9) split their doubleheader on Saturday night, while all 10 teams in the league completed a twin bill. Potomac picked up a 6-2 win in game one, while the Dash held on for a 5-2 win in the back half of the doubleheader.
In the opener, the Dash jumped out to an early lead against RHP Malvin Pena (ND). 1B Jameson Fisher drew a two-out walk for the Dash in the first inning, while RF Tyler Frost followed with an RBI double, which made it 1-0 in favor of Winston-Salem. Potomac answered right back against RHP Cristian Castillo (L, 0-2) in the club’s first trip to the plate, as 2B Cole Freeman tallied his first Carolina League home run, a solo blast to left field.
Both teams struck again in the second frame, as the Dash pulled ahead 2-1 on a two-out RBI single from CF Luis Robert, but the P-Nats responded with a three-run home half of the second inning. C Jakson Reetz drew a leadoff walk, while SS David Masters followed with his team-leading fourth home run of the season. Masters’ home run gave Potomac a 3-2 lead and proved to be the difference in the final score. The P-Nats added another in the frame on an RBI single fromDH Osvaldo Abreu, as Castillo was charged with four runs on six hits over four innings in the loss.
After four frames from Pena, Potomac turned to RHP Steven Fuentes (W, 1-0), who in turn pitched the final three innings. Fuentes retired the first six batters that he faced, but ran into trouble in an effort to close out the game in the seventh inning. The Dash alternated baserunners with outs through the first five batters of the inning, which brought LF Craig Dedelow to the plate as the potential tying run with the bases loaded, but Fuentes notched his fourth strikeout of the night, which capped Potomac’s 6-2 win.
The back half of the doubleheader saw no scoring through the first three innings, as RHP Lincoln Henzman (ND) worked three perfect innings for the Dash, while RHP Luis Reyes (L, 0-2) didn’t allow a hit over his first three frames.
Things fell apart for Reyes in the Dash’s fourth trip to the plate, as all nine spots in the lineup came to the plate in a five-run inning. Winston-Salem loaded the bases with no outs on a single and consecutive HBP’s, while 3B Tate Blackman grounded into a fielder’s choice out at the plate for the first out of the inning. While Reyes looked like he may have an opportunity to escape without any damage, RF Jordan George thought otherwise, as he notched the Dash’s first grand slam of the season with a home run down the right field line. Winston-Salem added another run and made it 5-0 on an RBI double from Dedelow in the frame.
After Henzman departed for RHP Zach Lewis (W, 2-1), Potomac finally had some offensive success. Freeman singled with one out in the fourth inning, stole second base, and then took third base on a wild pitch. A sacrifice fly from LF Telmito Agustin followed and plated Freeman, which got Potomac on the scoreboard. 1B Aldrem Corredor followed with a solo home run, his second home run of the season, as Potomac cut the deficit to three runs and trailed 5-2 after four innings.
LHP Grant Borne relieved Reyes after four frames and tossed three shutout innings out of the Potomac bullpen, his second consecutive shutout outing of at least three innings. The Potomac offense however failed to plate another run against Lewis, though threatened in the sixth inning. Consecutive two-out walks to Freeman and Agustin brought Corredor to the plate as the potential tying run, and despite a string of nine straight balls, Lewis got Corredor to ground out on a 3-0 offering, which ended the inning. Potomac got the tying run into the on-deck circle against RHPLuis Ledo (SV, 3) in the seventh inning, but never got that man to the plate.
Sunday: The Potomac Nationals (8-10) got a stellar outing from RHP Kyle Johnston (W, 1-3) and earned a split in their four-game series against the Winston-Salem Dash (8-10) on Sunday afternoon, slugging 11 hits in a 7-1 victory.
Johnston, Potomac’s Opening Day starter, bounced back from a difficult outing in Lynchburg last Tuesday with 5.2 innings of four-hit, one-run ball. The righty struck out three and didn’t walk a batter as he collected his first win of the season.
The P-Nats couldn’t solve Dash LHP John Parke (L, 1-1) through the first two frames, but jumped ahead in the third on a leadoff single from 3B Anderson Franco and subsequent RBI triple from LF Gage Canning. The next two batters were retired with the infield in, but 2B Cole Freeman came through with a two-out RBI single to put Potomac on top 2-0.
Johnston handled his first lead of the season well, facing the minimum in the fourth and fifth innings, and was rewarded by his offense with a four-run fifth to break the game open. SSOsvaldo Abreu drove in the first run with an RBI single, and 1B Aldrem Corredor brought home a pair with a two-out, two-run single to extend the Potomac lead to 5-0. RF Nick Banks capped off the rally with an RBI double two batters later that bounced Parke from the ballgame.
Johnston allowed his first and only run on an RBI single to Dash DH Nick Madrigal in the sixth, but LHP Hayden Howard got the final out of the inning and Potomac answered back in the bottom half with singles from CF Armond Upshaw and Freeman to bring the score to 7-1.
Howard fanned two in 1.1 scoreless innings, and RHP Andrew Lee got the final six outs to seal the Potomac victory.
The P-Nats enjoy their first scheduled off day of the season on Monday before returning to work on Tuesday for a three-game home series against the Salem Red Sox. First pitch at Northwest Federal Field in Woodbridge is scheduled for 7:05.
Hagerstown (Low-A South Atlantic League):
Saturday: The Suns were unable to sweep the Kannapolis Intimidators after the bullpen surrendered five runs in the sixth to sink the Suns 6-4 at Intimidators Stadium Saturday evening.
Hagerstown (8-9) jumped out to a 4-1 lead after an excellent start from Joan Adon . The righty tossed five innings, allowing just one earned run and surrendering just three hits, while whiffing six Intimidators (5-10) batters.
Ryan Tapani (L, 1-1) entered the game and struggled to find the zone. He allowed five runs, all in the sixth. The Intimidators line-up tagged him for four hits and he issued two free passes as the Suns fell behind 6-4.
The scoring began with an Amado Nunez single to plate Gunnar Troutwine. Nunez scored after a Tapani wild pitch that brought Kannapolis within one. Logan Sowers tied the game, lining a base hit to left to score Luis Curbelo. Later, Ramon Beltre doubled to score Sowers and Ian Dawkinsand push Kannapolis ahead 6-4.
After Tapani was lifted, Jhonatan German was able to spin a scoreless eighth to keep the bats close.
The Suns scored early again, adding three runs in the second inning. KJ Harrison kept his hot start going, skying a double to center to score Jacob Rhinesmith. Following the game today, Harrison has earned a .432 batting average in 12 games played, which is good for the top mark in the Class-A baseball. The next highest average comes from Michael Stefanic, who plays for the Burlington Beesin the Midwest League.
After that, Juan Pascal looped a base hit to center to score Gilbert Lara and Harrison. Following today’s game, Lara is on a seven-game hitting streak, good for the Suns’ longest streak of the season. He is hitting 11-for-30 (.366) over the stretch, which began April 14.
Kade McClure (1-0) stuck around for six innings and earned the win after his offense lifted him past the Suns bullpen. Austin Conway (S, 1) worked the ninth and set down Hagerstown to earn his first save of 2019.
Sunday: OFF.
