The Potomac Nationals (38-40 Overall, 17-23 Road, 5-3 Second-Half) used a five-run 6th stanza to break up a 3-3 tie and bury the Frederick Keys (35-44 Overall, 21-20 Home, 3-6 Second-Half) 8-3 in the rubber match series finale of a three-game road set on Nymeo Field at Harry Grove Stadium on Friday evening to take a series triumph.
The go-ahead run came to the plate in the 6th on an RBI 6-3 groundout dribbled by Potomac LF Estarlin Martinez that plated 2B Adrian Sanchez, who got on board on a single into center field.
Every member of the P-Nats’ starting lineup reached base safely at least once, five of nine batters drove in at least one run, and eight of nine men scored exactly one run.
The only Nationals swinger who didn’t score, C Spencer Kieboom, singled, walked twice, and drove in a pair of runs.
Nationals starter, RHP Phillips Valdez (3-2), the winning pitcher of record, registered his third Carolina League win with 5.0 innings under his belt in which the slinger gave up three runs but only one earned run on five base hits but no walks. Valdez struck out four Keys and overcame one hit batter two wild pitches throwing 80 total pitches and 52 offerings for strikes.
Valdez has now won his last three decisions (16.2 innings pitched/three earned runs/16 strikeouts/one walk/three wild pitches/two hit batters).
Keys starting pitcher, LHP Ariel Miranda, in his second career appearance with Frederick, did not receive a decision after going 4.0 frames in which the southpaw allowed two earned runs on three hits. Miranda walked three, struck out four, and allowed one deep fly.
Frederick received three straight singles to begin the bottom of the 1st frame. Baltimore Orioles 2B Jonathan Schoop, down on the farm on a rehabilitation assignment due to a sprained right knee, muscled a single to shallow right field before CF Josh Hart and C Chance Cisco chopped identical groundballs into right field through the deep hole at second base to load the bases. On a fielder’s choice ball off the bat of SS Jeff Kemp, Nationals 3B Drew Ward airmailed a throw over the head of Kieboom at home plate to allow Schoop and Hart to score. Valdez, later in the inning, unleashed a wild one to bring home Cisco to propel the Keys to an early 3-0 advantage.
Frederick would not score for the remainder of the game as RHP Ian Dickson, a 2014 Mills Cup Champion, turned in 3.0 scoreless relief innings in his 2015 P-Nats’ debut after being activated yesterday from the disabled list. Despite walking four hitters, Dickson fanned a trio and allowed no hits and no runs.
Potomac plated two runs in the 2nd on one swing, a two-run home run shot off Miranda over the left field trio of signage tiers by 1B Grant DeBruin. The blast was DeBruin’s first career home run as a Potomac National.
Frederick used four subsequent bullpen arms to get through the game. Losing pitcher, Keys RHP Nik Nowottnick (2-2) dropped his second decision after surrendering three earned runs in 1.1 innings. Nowottnick served up three hits and two walks.
Against Nowottnick, the P-Nats tied the contest at 3-3 in the 5th on an RBI single that ricocheted off the mount ripped by Kieboom that delivered the lead-off walk handed out to Martinez.
Keys RHP Jon Keller allowed the Martinez go-ahead RBI grounder swept by Martinez in the 6th plus a run-scoring single knocked into right field by Nationals CF Alec Keller after a double-digit pitch at-bat. Keller then walked SS Stephen Perez, RF John Wooten and Kieboom to put the P-Nats on top 6-3. A two-run single whipped into center field by Ward upped the Nationals’ edge to 8-3, the final score.
Keller, like Nowottnick, was charged with three earned runs after the Nationals brought nine men to the plate in the 6th.
Keys RHP Dylan Rheault and RHP Williams Louico combined for 3.0 scoreless innings in Act Three.
Potomac RHP Tyler Mapes finished the game by stranding a double served to the right field chalk by Keys RF Conor Bierfeldt. Frederick 3B Anthony Caronia was retired 6-3 on one pitch, LF Jay Gonzalez swung and missed at strike three, and Schoop waved and came up empty on strike three to end the contest.
Schoop went 1-for-4 with a single and one run scored in his second straight rehab game with the Frederick Keys.
The Nationals have won back-to-back series and five of their last six matchups.
Potomac heads home to Woodbridge, VA tonight to begin a six-game homestand at Pfitzner Stadium with the first three contests over the Fourth of July Weekend scheduled against the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Kansas City Royals).
The Nationals ship RHP John Simms (4-5, 3.41) to the mound in the series opener Saturday evening on Independence Day to duel against Wilmington LHP Sean Manaea (1-0, 1.80).
Simms has submitted eight quality starts in his last nine outings.
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