Potomac Nationals blasted by Pelicans

Myrtle Beach lit up Potomac Nationals starter Rob Gilliam for ten runs in four innings as the Pelicans took the rubber match of a three-game series 11-2. The P-Nats dropped five of six games to finish their road trip with a 17-42 overall road record — the worst in MiLB.

The Pelicans opened the scoring in the fourth inning against Potomac starter Rob Gilliam.  Tomas Telis was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Hanser Alberto and Brett Nicholas each singled to load the bases with no out.  Teodoro Martinez hit a sac fly to open the scoring and put Myrtle Beach up 1-0.  Johnny Gomez rolled into a fielders choice scoring Alberto and it was 2-0.   The big hit of the inning was a two-out two-run homer by Jeremy  Williams to extend the Pelicans lead to 4-0.

Potomac responded the next half inning with their first runs of the contest against Pelicans hurler Nick McBride.  JP Ramirez hit a double off the right field wall scoring Stephen King to bring the P-Nats within 4-1.

However a huge bottom half of the inning put it away.  The frame started with Edwin Garcia reaching on an error then Chris Grayson was hit by a pitch.  Garcia scored on a Telis single to increase the Pelicans lead to 5-1.  The next batter Alberto hit a three-run homer that cleared the bleachers in left field to make it a 8-1 game.  After a walk, Teodoro Martinez hit a two-run shot that chased Gilliam from the game and made it 10-1 Myrtle.

Gilliam (0-1) took his first Carolina League loss by giving up career-highs in runs (10) and earned runs (9), hitting two batters over four plus innings.  The three homers he yielded tied a career-high.

A throwing error by King in the sixth allowed Telis to score from second on a ground out to extend the Pelicans advantage to 11-1.

McBride (2-0) eluded trouble all night scattering eight hits over six innings while giving up just one run.  Potomac left five runners on base against McBride who didn’t walk a batter and struck out two.

Potomac had a chance to get into the game in the top of the eighth as Kevin Keyes hit an one-run single for his team-leading 61st RBI of the season.  The P-Nats loaded the bases with one out but Adrian Sanchez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to keep the Pelicans lead at 11-2.

The final tally was 11-2 as the P-Nats ended up losing five of the six games on the road trip.  They are 17-42 on the road which is the worst mark in MiLB with only the Houston Astros worse in affiliated baseball.