After the big league club took the rubber game in the Battle of the Beltways, beating the Baltimore Orioles 3-1, the Potomac Nationals took the field at RFK and were beat resoundingly 14-4 by the Salem Avalanche.
P-Nats starting pitcher, Clint Everts had yet another rocky outing, falling to 0-5 on the season surrendering eight earned runs in only three innings pitched (he faced one batter in the fourth, a solid single to RF). Once again, Everts biggest problem was his control. He walked four but was pitching behind most of the batters he faced on Sunday afternoon. All four of the batters he walked eventually scored, the last one on a grand slam by Avalanche catcher, Jeff Mackor (his first HR of the year and only his fourth in 626 career minor league AB). Everts was consistently in the high 80s on the radar gun.
The bullpen didn’t make things any easier on the P-Nats with RPs Juan Ovalles and Kole Strahorn allowing six earned runs on four walks and six hits (including another HR … so much for RFK not being a HR friendly ballpark). Ovalles looked OK for the first two innings, striking out three while allowing only one run on a wind-aided single to CF while frequently touching 90 on the radar gun. But, he struggled in his third inning of relief walking a batter, allowing a SB, and a wild pitch before a single to CF ended his afternoon. Strayhorn had four strikeouts in his two and two-thirds innings of relief, but was hit hard even when he retired batters. Strayhorn was frequently hitting 90+ on the gun, but it appeared that his pitches didn’t have as much movement as Ovalles.
On offense, the Nationals scored all of their runs in the third inning, paced by DH Tony Blanco’s two-run, two-out double. Avalanche RP Evan Englebrook pitched the final five innings striking out five while allowing only four hits (no runners past 2B). It was a frustrating afternoon for the P-Nats bats as most of their hard hit balls were directly to Avalanche fielders who didn’t seem to be phased by the winds whipping through RFK as the game progressed.
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