P-Nats win with walkoff

In his first rehab game, Mark DeRosa was hitless in two at bats but the Potomac Nationals walked off with a 5-4 victory in ten innings over the Winston-Salem Dash. The P-Nats start off the second half of the Carolina League season at 1-0.

DeRosa, rehabbing a left oblique strain, struck out looking in his first at bat before lining out to right field in his final at bat. He played five innings at third base before being removed from the game.

The Nationals won in walk-off fashion in a wild bottom of the tenth. With the bases loaded and one out, Stephen King hit a slow chopper to the mound. Dash reliever Chris Bassitt fielded the ball in front of the mound but his throw to the plate pulled catcher Michael Blanke off home plate and Francisco Soriano slid in safely to score the winning run.

Neil Holland (4-1) picked up the win for the P-Nats tossing two and third innings of shutout baseball. Holland retired all seven batters he faced striking out two.

The Dash jumped on P-Nats starter Robbie Ray with three runs in the opening half inning. Marcus Semien greeted Ray with a solo home run to start the game, his sixth of the season. After Carlos Sanchez and Dan Black reached on singles, Trayce Thompson and Cyle Hankerd hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Winston-Salem up 3-0.

Michael Earley added to the Dash lead in the fourth inning with an RBI double that brought home Hankard to make it 4-0.

Potomac finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning. Adrian Sanchez led off with a single and came around to score on an RBI single by Blake Kelso. The P-Nats had a chance for more but could not bring home Hague from third or Kelso from second with nobody out.

The Nationals rallied to tie up the game in the home half of the seventh. With the bases loaded and two outs, Kelso lined a bases clearing triple in the left-center field gap to knot the game up at 4-4.

Ray made his ninth start of the season and his third against the Dash. He went the first six innings allowing four runs, three of them earned, on six hits receiving the no decision.

Steve McCray took the mound for the Dash for his fourth start of the season. He also received a no decision pitching five plus innings yielding one earned run on five hits with four strikeouts.