Richmond, Va - The Harrisburg Senators will take on the Richmond Flying Squirrels tonight, June 12th at beautiful CarMax Park. The Sens are losers of two straight and getting out muscled offensively at the hands of the Eastern League’s offensive leaders. The Senators will be searching for the offense they found in last night’s 8th inning to continue into tonight’s ball game. Issac Lyon takes the ball in his 4th start for Harrisburg, looking to get on track from a few tough outings. The Sens come into play tonight with a record of 31-29 and winners of 4 of their last 10 games. The young Sens have been pieced together with some young talent to go along with the core of the team. The Sens will look to continue to gel and play more consistent baseball into the 2nd half of the year.
Meanwhile, the Richmond Flying Squirrels come into tonight’s game with a record of 39-20 and have officially ran away with the Southwest Division’s first half title. While they not mathematically clinched, the Flying Squirrels have a commanding 8.5 game lead with only 9 games to play. The Flying Squirrels can clinch the first half title with a win tonight. Richmond has won 5 of their last 10 games, while tearing the cover off the ball with a league leading .280 team batting average. Trystan Vrieling takes the ball for Richmond tonight and will make his 12th appearance for Richmond this season.
There will be some weather in the Richmond area throughout the evening but we should be all set to start baseball at the top of the 7 o’clock hour. Senators and the Flying Squirrels. Friday night baseball in Richmond. First pitch coming up at 7:05.
The line ups for tonight’s game is as follows:
For the visiting Senators: 1. Devin Fitz-Gerald 2B 2. Cayden Wallace SS 3. Sam Brown 1B 4. Sam Petersen CF 5. Max Romero Jr C 6. Ethan Petry DH 7. Leandro Pineda RF 8. TJ White LF 9. Kervin Pichardo 3B
The Flying Squirrels line up has not been announced and will be updated as soon as it’s provided.
Probable Pitchers
Harrisburg Senators – Issac Lyon (0-2, 8.74 ERA)
Season Stats: 8.74 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 41K, 39 2/3 IP
Stats w/ Sens: 8.74 ERA, 2.03 WHIP, 13K, 11 1/3 IP
Recent Form: Lyon is making his fourth start with the Sens tonight. For all intents and purposes he’s had a rude welcoming to AA. He hasn't made it out of the fourth inning in any of his AA starts. He’s given up 11R on 18H (3HR), 5BB and 13Ks in his three starts. Lyon will look to round into form as he continues to tackle AA and find his place in the Sens rotation.
vs. Opponent: Issac Lyon, in his first career appearance at AA has never faced the Flying Squirrels. He has also never faced any of the batters in Richmond’s lineup.
Richmond Flying Squirrels– Trystan Vrieling (1-1, 5.00 ERA)
Season Stats: 5.00 ERA 1.69 WHIP, 42 K, 45 IP
Recent Form: [LAST 3–5 STARTS SUMMARY] - In Vrieling’s last four starts the right hander has not made it past the 4th inning. In his last three starts he has combined to go 9 IP allowing 12R, 14H, 14BB and 5K. The Sens will look to take advantage of his recent slide and get to Vrieling early and get to Richmond’s bullpen.
vs. Opponent: Right Hander Vrieling has never faced the Senators in his career. He has faced two current Senators on their previous teams. Sens INF Kervin Pichardo and OF Leandro Pineda have a combined 8 career at bats against Vrieling. The pair has not recorded a hit against him and they’re a combined 0-7 with 1BB and 4Ks in 4 combined games.
Key Storylines/what to watch
Keep an eye on Issac Lyon tonight. While not a flashy Top 30 prospect, Lyon is now in his fourth AA start and I imagine the team is looking for quality start from the right hander. Lyon was acquired by the Nationals in a trade with Seattle last December that sent reliever Jose Ferrer to the Mariners. There is tons of potential with Lyon and we’ll look to see if he can turn a corner and develop into a young solid pitcher for the Nats organization.
Devin Fitz-Gerald, Ethan Petry and TJ White. These three are going to be the story most nights for the Sens. The coveted prospects, especially Petry and Fitz-Gerald. All three record hits in last night’s game and White is quietly hitting .429 in his first three games with the Sens. Could the trio be getting ready to take off and send the Sens on a fun run in the second half of the season? We certainly can hope.
Washington Nationals Prospects to watch
Last night I highlighted Caleb Lomavita and he showed us why. The average isn’t flashy but Caleb is showing a pop in his bat of late. He's also hitting .293 with 4HR and 22RBI with runners in scoring position. Timely hitting has been something the Sens have been searching for almost the entire first half.
Let’s highlight Cortland Lawson next. While the Ks have been a bit troublesome Cortland is hitting .444 this series with 2 doubles and an RBI. Cortland also hits right handed pitching at a much better clip than lefties. He’s hitting .289 with 4HR and 12RBI again right handers this year.
Devin Fitz-Gerald is the obvious choice to highlight. Top 5 prospect with all of the tools to be great. He is currently adjusting to AA and only 1-13 and hitting .077 in his first three games with the Sens. Fitz-Gerald got the monkey off of his back last night and recorded his first career AA hit, a homerun to left field. Let’s see if that was the piece that Fitz-Gerald needed to get going.