Saturday night at Frawley Stadium was the Phillips Valdez (W, 3-1) show, as the RHP struck out a career high 11 in a dominant seven-inning performance for the Potomac Nationals (10-7 Overall, 9-1 Road). The Wilmington Blue Rocks (6-11 Overall, 1-9 Home) had no answer for Valdez, as 1B Ryan O’Hearn’s first inning home run was the lone earned run that Valdez allowed.
For the fourth time in the series thus far, the P-Nats struck first. CF Andrew Stevenson swung at the first pitch of the game and reached on a fielding error by 2B Corey Toups. It was the first of four errors on the night for the Blue Rocks. After RHP Zach Lovvorn (L, 0-4) retired the next two hitters, C Raudy Read extended his hit streak to 12 games with the first of his two RBI singles in the game. Two batters later, 2B Bryan Mejia drove home Read with an RBI single of his own, as Potomac led 2-0 after half an inning and never looked back.
After the home run by O’Hearn, his sixth of the season, and fifth vs. Potomac, the game stayed scoreless until the fourth,. After Lovvorn retired the first two in the inning, 1B David Masters and RF Narciso Mesa had back-to-back singles that made it 3-1. Stevenson then dribbled one in front of the plate, and the throw by catcher Luis Villegas got past O’Hearn at first base, which allowed Mesa to score and made it 4-1.
Both teams struck for a run in the fifth, as DH Jose Marmolejos reached on an error and scored on Read’s second RBI single of the night for the P-Nats. The Blue Rocks answered courtesy of a single by 3B Wander Franco, as Franco then scored on an error by Mejia at second base.
Valdez, in the first seven-inning start of the season for a Potomac starter, set down the side in order on five different occasions. The righty struck out five in a row between the sixth and seventh innings, as his 11 strikeouts are the most by any P-Nats’ pitcher this season. Six different Potomac starters had at least one hit, with Read the lone starter with a multi-hit game, his fourth multi-hit game of the season. RHP Ryan Brinley (SV, 2) worked around a single in both the eighth and ninth in route to his second save of the season, as he set down the final three batters that he faced on two groundouts back to him on the mound and a strikeout.
Potomac looks to for the rare five-game sweep Sunday afternoon at Frawley Stadium, as RHP Wirkin Estevez (0-1, 5.40) takes the ball for the P-Nats at 1:35pm. Estevez made his first two starts of the season and is (0-1) with a 5.40 vs. the Blue Rocks. For Wilmington, RHP Pedro Fernandez (2-0, 1.76) will try to salvage the series. Fernandez allowed one earned run over six innings in a victory over the P-Nats on April 14th.
The P-Nats broadcast gets underway at 1:20pm with the “P-Nats Lead-Off Show” via the TuneIn Radio App or at PotomacNationals.com.
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Chris Graham
