MEDIA INFORMATION Potomac Nationals (37-30 / 0-0, T-1St, -- GB / Northern) Carolina League Affiliate of the Washington Nationals Vs
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MEDIA INFORMATION Potomac Nationals (37-30 / 0-0, T-1st, -- GB / Northern) Carolina League Affiliate of the Washington Nationals vs. Wilmington Blue Rocks (31-39 / 0-0, T-1st, -- GB / Northern) Carolina League Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals Game No. 71/1 • Road Game No. 36 • Northwest Federal Field at Pfitzner Stadium • Thursday, June 21, 2018 • 7:05 p.m. Tonight’s Starters BLUE ROCKS BREAKDOWN HOME: 18-17 | AWAY: 13-22 | STREAK: W2 | LAST 5: 3-2 | LAST 10: 4-6 WIL: RHP Anthony Bender (4-2, 4.72 ERA) ROCKS END FIRST HALF IN WINNING FASHION: The offense scored early and often as the vs. Wilmington Blue Rocks closed out the first half of the 2018 campaign with a lopsided, wire-to-wire 10-1 POT: RHP Joan Baez (3-5, 4.47 ERA) victory over the Winston-Salem Dash Sunday afternoon at BB&T Ballpark. Seven different Blue Rocks -Righty Anthony Bender makes his ninth start of the 2018 campaign and third picked up a hit while six different hitters drove in a run. Gabriel Cancel paced the offense with three hits against the Potomac Nationals. in the winning effort. The Blue Rocks closed out the first half with back-to-back wins. -Selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 20th round of the 2016 Draft out of Santa Rosa Junior College. NEW HALF, NEW FACES: With the start of the second half of the Carolina League season starting -In his last outing on June 13 at Down East, he earned his third straight win. Thursday, the Wilmington Blue Rocks have a handful of new players on the roster. -He matched a career-high with seven innings of work, allowed just one run (earned) -Arguably the most intriguing new addition to the Rocks is switch-hitting outfielder Blake Perkins, on four hits, did not walk a batter and struck out two. who spent the first half of the season with Potomac. -Bender has turned in a strong month of June so far and is 3-0 with a solid 2.84 ERA -Originally a second round pick by Washington in 2015, Perkins was one of three players dealt to in three games including two starts.(19.0 IP). Kansas City from Washington as the Nationals acquired former Blue Rock and All-Star reliever -In May, he was 0-2 with a 7.04 ERA in five appearances including four starts.(23.0 IP) -Against Potomac this season, Bender is 1-0 with a 3.45 ERA in three total outings, Kelvin Herrera on June 18 and is rated as the 15th-best prospect in the Royals’ system according including two starts. to MLBPipeline.com -15.2 IP, 14H, 6R/6ER, 10BB, 6K, .237 BAA. -RHP Nolan Watson joins the Blue Rocks roster after starting the year in Low-A Lexington. -During his career, the 22-year-old has been between both the bullpen and start- -The former first round pick by the Royals in 2015 out of Lawrence North High School will make his ing rotation. Carolina League debut in the third game of this series. -Last season, Bender spent the majority of the campaign with Low-A Lexington. -Infielder Travis Jones was also promoted from Low-A Lexington and put together solid numbers. -He appeared in 23 games, made eight starts and yielded a 3.93 ERA and went 5-5. -The 29th round pick by Kansas City in 2017 led the Legends in batting average (.285), hits (65), doubles -In 73.1 innings of work, he allowed 68 hits, 32 eared runs and had a solid strikeout (13), stolen bases (14), second in runs scored (41) and tied for second in RBI (32). to walk ratio of 74 to 20. -All-Stars Kort Peterson and Bryan Brickhouse were promoted to Double-A Northwest Arkansas -Opponents hit .246 against him. -He made his first 14 appearances in relief before joining the starting rotation on July 16. after putting together strong first halves of the season -As a starter for the Legends, he posted a 3.33 ERA (17 ER in 46.0 innings) in nine starts while yielding a 4.88 ERA (17 ER in 31.1 innings) in 15 relief FIRST HALF WRAP UP: The Blue Rocks ranked amongst the league leaders in multiple offensive appearances. categories in the first half of the campaign. -Bender features a fastball in the upper 90’s, along with a curveball, slider and changeup. -They paced the Carolina League in walks (280). (Potomac was second with 274) -Finished second with 76 stolen bases and fourth in on-base percentage (.333), but sixth in runs -Fellow right-hander Joan Baez makes his 13th start of the season and his scored (291) and seventh in batting average (.240). fourth against the Blue Rock. -On the mound, Wilmington had the third-highest team ERA (4.32), had the fewest strikeouts (462) -Signed with Washington as an international free agent in 2014 from San and allowed the most hits (614). Cristobal, DR. -Rated as the No. 27 prospect in Washington system per Baseball America. -In his last start, on June 14 against Buies Creek, he turned in his best start of ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END: A pair of Blue Rocks’ outfielders had the season and earned the win. impressive batting streaks come to an end on the last road trip of the first half. -He matched a season-high with seven scoreless innings, allowed three hits, -Khalil Lee had his 18-game on-base streak come to a close in the second game of the doubleheader three walks and struck out four. on June 13 at Down East. -Against Wilmington this year he is 1-0 with a 2.31 ERA in three starts. (11.2 - It marks the longest on-base streak of any Blue Rock this season and tied for the sixth-longest in all IP) of the Carolina League this year. -Last season he spent with the P-Nats and went 4-8 with a 3.87 ERA in 17 -The 19-year-old hit .350 during the stretch with a .473 on-base percentage. starts. -The 11-gamer started on June 1 and he slashed .378/.452/.811 during span. -The biggest issue for the hard-throwing righty was his control. -He walked 7.5 batters per nine innings during his first season in the Caro- -Vance Vizcaino had his season-long hitting streak come to a close at 10-games on June 14 at lina League. Winston-Salem. (.400, 16-for-40) -He finished with the fourth-most walks allowed last year with 66 in 79 innings -He does still have an active on-base streak of 13 games. of work last season. -The 23-year-old features a fastball that hovers in the mid-90s, but can reach LEE THE ON-BASE MACHINE: Blue Rocks’ outfielderKhalil Lee has been solid at the plate since 96-97.m.p.h. to go along with a curveball that he is still developing and an the month of May. improving changeup. -The Carolina League All-Star is slashing .268/.392/.395 with 24 RBI, 28 walks and 28 runs scored in 45 games. -On the season, he paces the league with 47 walks and sixth in all of MiLB with that mark. 2018 Regular-Season Series: WIL vs. POT (POT Leads Series, 11-6) -He is also second in the CL in on-base percentage (.399) (WIL Won Series 16-10 in 2017) -Has hit safely in 11 of 17 contests in the month of June. -He leads the team with 16 multi-hit games and 35 RBI. Date Site Result WP LP Save 4/5 POT W, 5-3 Ruxer (1-0) Bourque (0-1) Sheller (1) BURT PROVIDING THE HURT: Second-year Blue Rock D.J. Burt is not suffering from a sophomore slump in the Carolina League. 4/6 POT L, 9-2 Sharp (1-0) Vines (0-1) -He was named to the Carolina League All-Star Classic this season and has been one of the best 4/7 POT W, 5-4 Bender (1-0) Fuentes (0-1) Brickhouse (1) table setters in the league. 4/8 POT L, 3-2 Klobosits (1-0) Sheller (0-1) -Burt closed out the first half with a pair of hits, including a double and drove in two runs. 4/24 WIL L, 5-1 Mapes (3-0) Gomez (0-2) -He has a hit in 32 of his 46 games played and has picked up a hit in 18 of his last 24 games and 4/25 WIL L, 6-2 Crowe (3-0) Ruxer (1-2) slashing .297/.366/.407 during that span. 4/26 WIL W, 5-0 Hernandez (2-0) Crownover (1-2) -Burt has served as the Rocks’ utility man this season, making 15 starts at third base, 11 at second 5/1 POT L, 6-5 Crowe (4-0) Garabito (1-2) Pantoja (2) base, 10 at shortstop and seven in left field. 5/2 POT W, 12-7 Hernandez (3-0) Crownover (1-3) Wynne (2) -Made his first-career start at the hot corner coming on May 26 at home against Salem. 5/3 POT L, 12-2 Sharp (3-2) Castillo (1-3) -This the first season in his professional career that he has played in the outfield. 5/7 WIL W, 5-3 Hernandez (4-0) Rivera (0-1) Brickhouse (5) CANCEL CLEANING UP NICELY: Blue Rock’s infielderGabriel Cancel continues to produce 5/8 WIL L, 3-1 Sharp (4-2) Castillo (1-4) Bourque (1) as the cleanup hitter this season.