Last Tuesday, the first-place Lehigh Valley IronPigs cruised into Rochester, and their bats were on fire. Cade Cavalli was going to start for Rochester, and hope was optimistic as the season for the Red Wings was as dismal as the April weather in Rochester during their spring. The Red Wings and their fans were looking forward to turning the calendar to May in two days. Cavalli had a good first inning, striking out two and retiring the IronPigs without giving up any runs. Lehigh Valley's bats came to life in the second inning when the first two batters both reached first base, and then Oscar Mercado drilled a ball over the left field fence for a three-run home run. This was the first of six homers the IronPigs would hit in the game on their way to beating the Red Wings 19-1. Seth Shuman was sitting in the dugout, realizing tomorrow night would be his turn to pitch against the team not only in first place, but they were also the #1 team in Team Offense!

Shuman took the mound for the second game of the series and put on a pitching clinic. Shuman walked the first batter and then retired the next three batters in a row. After watching "power pitching" the night before fail, he decided to use a different approach. Shuman used four pitches successfully. He used a four-seam fastball that sits in the low-90s, and he mixed his secondary pitches with a sweeping slider in the mid-80s, a curveball in the upper-70s that has a vertical drop, and a mid-80s change-up that fades away from left-handed batters. Shuman uses a "command over power" approach with his ¾ arm slot. The command of his pitches was superb! He faced 19 batters and threw a first-pitch strike to 15 of them. He was constantly pitching ahead in the count and would make the IronPigs' batters swing at the pitch that he wanted to throw and where he wanted to locate it. Shuman pitched five shutout innings against the IronPigs' highly explosive offense and gave up only one hit while walking two and striking out five.

Seth Shuman was acquired by the Nationals along with Drew Millas from the Oakland A's in 2021. He has been pitching in the minor leagues for six years and has a career ERA of 3.53 and an above-average WHIP of 1.21. Shuman locates his pitches well and approaches each batter he faces by changing his speed and eye level effectively. He has started two games for Rochester, and the opponent's batting average against him is .206.

Seth Shuman will be starting the opening game against Scranton Wilkes-Barre, which means he will be opening the series and finishing the seven-game series on Sunday.