CarL1 Potomac Nationals

Potomac Nationals Game Notes

Published on July 25, 2008 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Potomac Nationals News Release


TONIGHT: The Potomac Nationals and Frederick Keys meet in game one of a three-game series...The P-Nats fell into an early 7-2 hole last night and fell short on a comeback bid dropping the finale of the series with Kinston 7-5....Potomac enters today 1.5 games ahead of Lynchburg atop the Carolina League Northern Division.

TONIGHT'S STARTER: The Potomac Nationals send right-hander Hassan Pena to the mound making his Carolina League debut...Prior to his call-up to Potomac today, Pena made six starts with Hagerstown going 2-2 while sporting a 2.08 ERA...The right-hander was effective for the Suns recording 24 strikeouts in 26 innings pitched...In his last outing on July 20, Pena tossed six shutout innings against the Greenville Drive allowing just four hits en route to the victory...Selected by the Washington Nationals in the 13th round of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft, Pena defected from Cuba and spent ‘06 with Palm Beach Community College...The 23-year-old spent all of the 2007 season with Short-Season Vermont where he went 4-5 in 13 starts with a 4.25 ERA.

STILL STANDING TALL: The Potomac Nationals have only spent two days were they were not in or had a share of the division lead since moving to the top spot on April 10...Potomac had a string of 91 straight days in first place snapped with a 4-1 loss to Wilmington on July 9...Last season the Nationals spent 31 consecutive days in first from April 5 through May 5...The P-Nats ended the first half in last place, 10 games under .500 and only saw first place for one day, June 21, after May 5.

BOOMER BUNTS FOR BASE KNOCKS: Brandon "Boomer" Whiting went 1-for-5 yesterday with a RBI single, run scored, strikeout and a stolen base...The 25-year-old has 15 hits with the P-Nats and seven are bunt singles.

BULLISH PEN: Jack Spradlin and Josh Wilkie cooled off the K-Tribe offense last night tossing five scoreless innings...Potomac relievers have not allowed a run in four games totaling 16 innings...Since Wilkie blew a save and took the loss against the Salem Avalanche on July 14, the bullpen has given up just three runs, one earned, in 26 1/3 innings over the last seven games (0.34 ERA)...Potomac relievers have allowed just 13 hits over that span with 15 strikeouts and eight walks...No surprise, the P-Nats are 5-2 over that span...Overall this season Potomac is 53-2 when leading after seven innings.

STARTING A TREND: With the promotion of right-hander Zack Segovia to Double-A Harrisburg on Wednesday, the P-Nats have now sent seven starting pitchers to the Senators including Cory VanAllen, Jordan Zimmermann, Craig Stammen, Joe Norrito (made one spot start), Adrian Alaniz, Justin Jones and Segovia....Four members of Potomac's Opening Day five-man rotation (VanAllen, Zimmermann, Alaniz, and Jhonny Nunez) are currently on the Harrisburg roster...Not counting rehabs, Hassan Pena will be the 13th different starting pitchers this season (Nunez, VanAllen, Zimmermann, Alaniz, Stammen, Jones, Segovia, Norrito, Pena, Terrence Engles, Jeff Mandel, Luis Atilano, and Ross Detwiler).

SEUSS ON THE LOOSE: Aaron Seuss has been on a roll over his last six games going 9-for-25 (.360) with six extra-base hits including four doubles, a triple, and a home run...The 23-year-old has driven in seven runs and scored five over that span and has raised his batting average from .236 to .275.

ROSTER MOVE: Edulin Abreu joins Pena as new members to the Potomac roster...Abreu was a reliable arm out of the bullpen for the Suns this season owning a 2-1 record with a 4.03 ERA...The right-hander tied for the team-lead in saves (6) and ranked second in appearances (30) which all came out of the bullpen...The Dominican-native's best outing came on July 5 against the West Virginia Power when he tossed four shutout innings without allowing a hit while notching two strikeouts...Signed by the Washington Nationals as a non-drafted free agent in 2005, Abreu split 2007 between Hagerstown and Short-Season Vermont...The 23-year-old appeared in a combined 24 games primarily as a reliever going 4-5 with a 4.87 ERA. Abreu has never played above Low-A during his four-year professional career.

ROSTER REVOLUTION: With the addition of Pena and Abreu, there have now been 58 different players, including rehabs, to wear a Potomac Nationals uniform in 2008, most in the P-Nats four-year history...The previous mark was 57 set back in 2006.

FRUSTRATED IN FREDERICK: The Potomac Nationals need a sweep of the Frederick Keys at Harry Grove Stadium this weekend to avoid having a losing record in Northwest Maryland this season...The P-Nats enter Friday night's contest 2-5 at Harry Grove, the only ballpark in the league in which they have a losing record...All seven games played in Frederick between the two clubs this season have been decided by four runs or less including four decided by two or fewer runs...The largest margin of victory for either team in the season series is just four with eight of the 14 games decided by just two runs.

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