HARRISBURG 6 ALTOONA 4; June 23
By Chip Millard
The Senators posted one of their best wins of the season tonight, coming from behind to post a 6-4 win over Altoona on City Island and earn a series split in the 4-game series. For the first 6 innings of this contest, Harrisburg was totally dominated by Curve starting pitcher Ron Chiavacci. Chiavacci, a former Senators’ player in the early 2000’s who holds the team record for strikeouts in a season (161 in 2001), allowed only one baserunner in the first 6 innings, a seeing-eye single up the middle by Tim Raines Jr. Meanwhile, Altoona plated a pair of runs in both the 1st and 5th innings off of Harrisburg starter David Maust and carried a 4-0 lead into the 7th inning. The way Chiavacci was pitching, things didn’t look good for the hosts. But the Senators batted around and mounted an unexpected 4-run uprising in the 7th to tie the game. Raines opened the inning with a single just beyond the 2nd baseman’s glove. Kory Casto followed with a walk, and Prentice Redman added a softly hit pop fly single to shallow LF to load the bases. Josh Whitesell then grounded out to 1st but all runners advanced a base and the Senators finally got on the scoreboard. Chiavacci hit the showers and Altoona brought in reliever Chris Hernandez. His first batter was Dan Dement, and the Curve decided to pitch to Dement with 1st base open. That proved to be a mistake, as Dement delivered one of the two big hits of the game for Harrisburg, a triple to deep CF that drove in both Casto and Redman. After Seth Bynum was retired on a failed, safety squeeze bunt attempt, Josh Emmerick, who was hitting .148 entering the game, laced a single to LF to score Dement and tie the game. The Senators didn’t waste time adding to their lead in the 8th inning, scoring 2 more runs. Raines led off with another single, his third straight hit. Casto then delivered the other big hit of the game for the hosts, hitting a deep home run to just a few feet left of dead center field to give the Senators a 6-4 lead. The Senators’ relief pitching made that lead hold up (as well as giving the Senators an opportunity to come back), as Devin Perrin, Daniel Foli (the winning pitcher), and Brett Campbell each pitched a scoreless inning to secure the win for Harrisburg. The Senators improved to 40-32 on the season with the win and are 3 games behind Altoona (43-29) in the race for the second playoff spot in the Eastern League’s Southern Division.
General game notes (and other related notes):
- Each of the Senators’ outfielders made an excellent defensive play tonight. In the 2nd inning, CF Tim Raines Jr. made a leaping catch over the left-center field wall to rob Altoona of a home run. In the 9th inning, LF Melvin Dorta made a superb, sliding catch on a shallow fly ball to record the first out of the inning. RF Prentice Redman then made an even better play, diving for a liner to right field to secure the second out of the inning. Both of the latter plays were keys in allowing Brett Campbell to secure his 6th save of the season.
- Catcher Salomon Manriquez, who did not play tonight, was selected to play in the Futures Game during the MLB All-Star Break. He was the only Nationals player in Double A selected for the game.
- Outfielder Frank Diaz came down with some back problems during the Senators’ rain-shortened loss to Altoona on Thursday. He did not play on Friday night, and based on the article in Friday’s Harrisburg Patriot-News, it appears he may be placed on the 15-day disabled list.
Individual player notes:
- Kory Casto - had a 1 for 3 night with one of the Senators’ 2 big hits, a 2-run homer that gave the Senators the lead in the 8th inning. He also walked and scored another run. Casto did not make any noteworthy plays at 3rd base, either positive or negative. He’s now hitting .305 and has OBP/SLG/OPS numbers of .430/.547/.977, ranking among the EL leaders in all 3 categories.
- Josh Whitesell - was officially 0 for 4 but did knock in the first run of the game for the Senators. Unlike some previous appearances, he was solid at 1st base defensively. Whitesell is now hitting .252 but does have a decent walk rate, OBP, and SLG.
- Tim Raines Jr. - was 3 for 4 with 3 singles, scoring twice. raising his average to above .300 and his OBP to near .400 (.386). As noted above, he also saved a pair of runs by making a leaping catch in deep left-center to rob Altoona of a home run early in the game.
- Prentice Redman - had a 1 for 4 night with a single and run scored. He also struck out twice. He’s still hitting .352 and has an OBP well over 400 and a SLG well over .500. He also made a great catch in RF in the 9th inning.
- Dan Dement - went 1 for 4 with a 2-run triple and a run scored. He played solidly at 2nd base.
- Melvin Dorta - had an 0 for 4 night at the plate from the leadoff spot and is now hitting .300. He did make a very fine catch in LF in the 9th inning.
- David Maust - pitched 6 innings, giving up 4 runs (including 1 home run, a solo shot) on 9 hits and 2 walks. He didn’t have any strikeouts. Most notably, Altoona hit many balls hard off of Maust, though some of those balls were hit at Harrisburg fielders. His season ERA is now 4.56.
- Devin Perrin - struggled a little bit in his inning of work, giving up a hit and a walk, though he didn’t give up any runs. He also was called for a balk. On the plus side, he recorded 2 strikeouts. Perrin’s ERA went down to 3.29.
- Brett Campbell - earned the save by pitching a scoreless 9th inning, though he did give up one hit. He was helped by 2 superb defensive plays. Campbell still hasn’t given up an earned run since joining the Senators. (He has given up one unearned run.)
BINGHAMTON 6 HARRISBURG 1; June 24
by Chip Millard
For the second straight night, the Senators spotted their opponent, this time the Binghamton Mets, 2 runs in the top of the 1st inning. Like Friday night, the Senators fell further behind in the middle innings. But unlike Friday night, Harrisburg didn’t come back late and fell to the visiting B-Mets 6-1 in front of 5,168 fans on City Island. Binghamton strung together 3 hits and jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning off of eventual losing pitcher Beltran Perez. The B-Mets added 3 more runs in the 4th inning to take a 5-0 lead. Perez was nickeled and dimed to death, as he was peppered for 11 hits in 5 innings of work, 10 of those hits singles. Binghamton also hit many balls hard off of Perez, a good number of them seemingly just beyond the Senators’ fielders’ reach. Gerald Plexico relieved Perez in the 6th inning and promptly gave up a run on a wild pitch (which nonetheless should have been stopped by catcher Salomon Manriquez). Plexico did settle down after that and was untouched the remainder of the game, giving up only 2 hits total in 4 innings (and helping to save the Senators’ bullpen), but it didn’t matter as the Senators’ offense couldn’t string anything together. Harrisburg averted the shutout when Manriquez hit a solo homer in the 7th inning. Binghamton starter Tim McNab did a solid job and picked up the win, pitching 5 1/3 innings and giving up 4 hits and 0 walks while striking out 5 batters before leaving with an injury.
General game notes:
- Tonight’s home plate umpire had a bad case of what I like to call the “amoeba strike zone” - shapeless and constantly changing without rhyme or reason. Pitches that looked like strikes were called balls, and pitches that looked like balls were called strikes, and which balls were which seemed to change from inning to inning. Many fans agreed with my assessment of the umpire’s strike zone.
- The official scorer had nearly as many strange decisions as the home plate umpire, calling a number of plays for both teams hits that could have been ruled errors instead. Senators SS Seth Bynum had a particularly tough night, making the only official error of the game but also failing to field a ball that was ruled a hit but appeared to be an error to my eyes.
- Though the pitching wasn’t exceptional, at least on the Senators’ side, neither team’s pitchers issued any walks.
Individual player notes:
- Kory Casto - suffered through an 0 for 4 night at the plate, striking out twice. His other 2 at-bats resulted in a deep fly out down the LF line and a hard-hit line-out to RF. In the field Casto made a nice play on a short-hop grounder, though he couldn’t quite catch a liner near him early in the game. He’s now hitting .300 on the season and has OBP/SLG/OPS numbers of 423/.538/.961.
- Salomon Manriquez - was the bright spot for the Senators’ offense, going 3 for 4 with a homer, double, and single. He showed good hustle on his double, a ball down the LF line where Manriquez never stopped running and surprised the B-Mets’ leftfielder, who never made a throw to 2nd base. On defense, as noted above he was unable to stop a wild pitch that went through the wickets. He also gave up a stolen base, through that was more Perez’ fault. Manriquez is now hitting .296 and has OBP/SLG/OPS numbers of 368/.425/.793.
- Tim Raines Jr. - had a 1 for 4 night with a single. He also struck out twice. Raines played solidly in CF.
- Prentice Redman - was hitless in 4 at-bats and also struck out twice. He played acceptable defense in RF.
- Josh Whitesell - like some of his teammates, he had a poor night at the plate, going 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. He did make one nice unassisted play on defense at 1st base.
- Melvin Dorta/Dan Dement - Dorta went 2 for 4 with a pair of singles, while Dement had a single in 4 at-bats. Dement had some troubles in the field at 2nd base, dealing with some bad hops and balls just beyond his glove. Dorta did nothing notable, either good or bad, in LF.
- Beltran Perez - had one of his worst outings of the season. In his 7th start of the season, he gave up 5 runs (all earned) and 11 hits in 5 innings while striking 6 B-Mets’ hitters. Perez fell to 5-2 on the season and his ERA went up to 3.56.