Woodbridge, VA - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (18-21) had their season-high four-game winning streak come to an end in a lopsided 10-0 loss to the Potomac Nationals (19-19) Tuesday night at Pfitzner Stadium. The loss marked the fourth time the Blue Crew have been shutout and the largest margin of
Woodbridge, VA - The Wilmington Blue Rocks (18-21) had their season-high four-game winning streak come to an end in a lopsided 10-0 loss to the Potomac Nationals (19-19) Tuesday night at Pfitzner Stadium. The loss marked the fourth time the Blue Crew have been shutout and the largest margin of defeat for Wilmington this season. Chase Vallot paced the offense with two of the team's four hits in the game.
The Nationals jumped out early scoring single runs in the second and third with solo home runs from Bryan Mejia and Austin Davidson respectively to give the P-Nats a 2-0 lead. In the meantime, Wilmington's offense could not figure out the riddle that was Potomac's starter RHP Luis Reyes (3-5). Reyes tossed 6 1/3 innings of one-hit ball and earned the win. Still a manageable game heading to the seventh inning, the P-Nats broke the game open with a five-run frame. The inning included three, run-scoring hits, highlighted by a two-run triple by Mejia to make it a 7-0 lead.
In the eighth inning, Potomac's catcher Taylor Gushue added to his league-leading home run total with a three-run blast in the eighth to help the Nationals take a 10-0 lead which they would go on to win by. With the ten-run deficit, it marked the largest margin of defeat for the Blue Crew this season.
Wilmington takes on Potomac in the third game of the four-game series on Wednesday, May 17 with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Pfitzner Stadium. RHP A.J. Puckett (3-3, 4.25 ERA) climbs the hill for Wilmington while Potomac counters with LHP Matthew Crownover (3-0, 1.33 ERA). Fans can listen to the game as Matt Janus will have the call on 89.7 WGLS-FM.
Pebbles of Knowledge:
Anderson Miller had his impressive 30-game on-base streak come to an end with an 0-for-4 performance at the plate Tuesday night. The streak sets a new career-high and stands as the Carolina League high so far this season. His previous watermark was a 16-gamer set a year ago in Low-A Lexington. Miller fell three games shy tying the club record which was set by Eric Hosmer when he reached in 33 straight games back in 2010. The streak is also tied for the fourth-longest active streak in the Carolina League in the last three years. During the streak, Miller hit .298 with six home runs and has driven in 20 runs. Coincidentally, the streak started against the Potomac Nationals on April 14 when he went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
With Miller's streak ending, Nicky Lopez quietly has a 17-game on-base streak going which is the second-longest by any Blue Rock this season, behind Miller's 30-gamer. In his career, Lopez also has a 30-game on-base streak which he opened up the season with from June 23 to July 26. Lopez also has a modest seven-game hitting streak within the on-base streak.
With the shutout loss, the Blue Rocks suffered their fourth shutout defeat of the season. The last time the Blue Crew were shutout was back on April 29 at Buies Creek in a 3-0 loss. Wilmington suffered 15 shutouts a season ago. The ten-run loss was also the largest shutout loss of the season for the Rocks this year.
They Said It: Jamie Quirk
"It's fair. (Colin Rodgers and Andres Machado struggle with command) We hung in there and battled. Rodgers only gave up three hits at one point going into the fifth. The two home runs got us behind and we couldn't get anything going offensively to get back in the game. They blew it open late, but we were battling. We were flirting with danger all night. (Potomac) was getting base runners and we were holding on, but we let the flood gates open up late in the game. We'll be fine, I now they'll show up and start a new streak. I'm not worried about it at all."
"(Jacob) Bodner pitched really well. His line won't show it, but he came in a tight situation, did a great job, got two strikeouts and did a great job. In his third inning, he got a little tired and I took him out. I hate taking guys out in those situations because it's their runs, but I thought he was gassed and wanted to get a fresh arm in there. It just didn't work out. His numbers won't look good, but he pitched really good."
"If you know how to get him out let us know. (On Taylor Gushue's great success against Wilmington and rest of the league.) He's killed us with five homers and a ton of RBIs. We pitched him close last night and we went into the series saying we weren't going to let him beat us and we haven't. He got the homer (Tuesday night) but the game was out of line. We have been pitching him tough and make him earn it. He's locked in and a good looking player. He's a switch-hitting catcher and I love him behind the dish. He has a nice future ahead of him, but he's locked in, hitting home runs, driving in runs and he's a good looking ball player."
"It's very impressive (On Miller's 30-game on-base streak coming to an end). He has his average up to about .280 and he's driving in some runs. He's playing well. Too bad it had to end tonight, but like I said, he'll be back out tomorrow and get after it again. Thirty games on base, it's not like they were all walks, they were hits and he's put a nice streak together and I'm sure he'll start a new one tomorrow."
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