For the first time in 2016, the Potomac Nationals (66-53, 32-19) fell at Frawley Stadium to the Wilmington Blue Rocks (44-76, 18-34), as they dropped the series opener Monday night 7-3. Potomac went 8-0 at the home of the Blue Rocks in the first half of the season. The loss was Potomac’s fifth in the past seven games.
In his first start vs. Wilmington since April, RHP Boone Whiting (L, 9-3) struggled through much of his outing. The right-handed starter gave up at least one run in each inning that he pitched and failed to record an out in a three-run fourth inning. Charged with six earned runs, Whiting has now given up 14 earned runs in 14 innings over three starts vs. the Blue Rocks.
Wilmington got out to an early start and scored at least one run in each of the first four innings. CF Cody Jones led off the bottom of the first inning with a double and scored two batters later on an RBI single by 1B Samir Duenez. Jones and Duenez each had four hits in the game, and after the pair made it 1-0 in the first inning, the Blue Rocks never looked back and led the rest of the way.
For the Blue Rocks, LHP Matt Tenuta (W, 6-8) was nearly flawless over the first three innings. Only 3B Bryan Mejia reached base for Potomac over the first three frames, as Tenuta retired 10 of the first 11 men that he faced. In the bottom of the third inning, Duenez’s solo home run made it 4-0 Wilmington.
Potomac strung three hits together in the fourth inning and plated two runs against Tenuta. SS Osvaldo Abreureached on a one-out bunt single, while C Raudy Read’s double put men at second and third base. DH Alec Keller got Potomac on the board with an RBI single, while RF Drew Vettleson plated Read on a sacrifice fly. Tenuta struck out Mejia to end the fourth and did not allow another man to reach base over his 6.2 inning performance.
As quickly as the P-Nats got back into the game and made it 4-2, the Blue Rocks answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Wilmington had four consecutive hits against Whiting to start the frame, which knocked the Potomac starter out of the game. 3B Mike Hill led off with a double and scored on an RBI single by DH Robert Pehl. SS Brian Bien and Jones followed with singles, which brought RHP Mario Sanchez out of the bullpen for Potomac. Sanchez struck out 2B Austin Bailey but gave up a two-run single to Duenez, as the Blue Rocks took a 7-2 lead into the fifth inning.
LHP Brennan Henry came on for Tenuta with two outs in the seventh inning and gave up a single to Mejia, but got out of the inning. Henry issued a walk and saw CF Victor Robles reach on an error in the eighth, but the lefty got Abreu to ground into a double play to end the inning. In the ninth, Read led off with a single and scored on a two-out RBI infield single by Mejia, though LF Dale Carey grounded out to end the game, as Potomac fell 7-3.
Read extended his hit streak to seven games and now has multiple hits in each of his last three starts. With three hits, Mejia had his third multi-hit game in his last four starts, while the other seven Potomac starters had just two total hits. Robles had a nine-game hit streak snapped with an 0-4 night.
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Chris Graham
