CarL1 Potomac Nationals

Nationals Drop Home Opener

Published on April 9, 2007 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Potomac Nationals News Release


It was frigid Monday night at Pfitzner Stadium, with game time temperature poking just north of 40 degrees.

It's safe to say that the Potomac bats were at least 40 degrees colder than that as the Salem Avalanche held the Nationals hitters under wraps in an 8-0 P-Nats loss.

"I'm sure the weather affects all the players," Potomac manager Randy Knorr said. "But you can't take anything away from Salem."

The Potomac bats certainly didn't take anything from Salem, mustering just one hit in their home opener, two days after scoring 18 runs in two games at Lynchburg.

The lone scratch under the hit column for Potomac came in the first inning when Dee Brown tapped a grounder down the third base line and reached first before Salem starter Brad James could make a play.

James kept the Nationals off balance in his six innings of work, allowing the lone Potomac hit, walking two and striking out four.

Even though his strike out numbers weren't high, James was particularly effective with his sinker, causing 13 of the 22 Nationals hitters he faced to ground out.

"He was throwing his sinker down and keeping his fastball down," Nationals manager Randy Knorr said. "We needed to try to elevate his pitches, but he just kept getting us to pound the ball into the ground."

Even when Potomac didn't pound the ball into the ground, they couldn't get anything going. Quick innings peppered the Nationals box score, as Potomac went the quiet route in five innings, including a four-inning stretch where they failed to put a man on base.

"When you have those quick innings it helps their pitcher get into a groove," Knorr said. "What it boils down to is they made some plays and we didn't."

The Nationals didn't fair much better against the Salem bullpen once James exited. Nick Cavanagh and Samuel Gervacio combined for three innings of no-hit relief, with Cavanagh striking out four Nationals and Gervacio striking out two of the four Potomac hitters he face.

Salem started the scoring in the second, with three runs off Potomac starter Carlos Martinez. Martinez hung around for 4 1/3 innings, giving up six runs, five earned, on 10 hits, while walking one and hitting a batter. "Martinez just got the ball up," Knorr said. "He just didn't make his pitches tonight and that was the difference. But we're looking forward to getting him back out there in five days and seeing what he does."

Salem pushed a pair of runs across in the fourth after Martinez had retired the first two Avalanche hitters to start the inning.

Billy Hart started the two-out rally for Salem with a base hit and then moved to third on a Ryan Reed double to right field. Wladimir Sutil picked up an infield single that scored Hart and Josh Flores followed with a single that scored Reed.

Hart drove in another run for Salem in the seventh with a fielder's choice and Mark Ori followed with a RBI-fielder's choice in the eighth to round out the scoring for the Avalanche.

A bright spot for the Nationals was the work of the bullpen. Reliever Dan Foli was able to get out of a second and third jam in the eighth, striking out Sutil to end the Avalanche threat.

"I really like the bullpen," Knorr said. "We had a couple of guys out there that hadn't thrown in a while and they threw well."

The Nationals will continue their four-game set against Salem on Tuesday at 7:35 p.m. at Pfitzner Stadium. Clint Everts will get the start for Potomac while Sergio Perez will take the hill for Salem.

Check out the Potomac Nationals Statistics

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Carolina League Stories from April 9, 2007


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