Tag Archives: Nationals

24 Jun

ghostbuster

Lance Lynn seems to have the counter curse for the demons that haunt pitchers at Coors Field. The ex-Ole Miss star threw eight shutout innings on Monday night, yielding just three hits with seven strikeouts in St. Louis’ 8-0 win over Colorado. The skidding Rockies were shut out at home for the first time in almost a year. Lynn, now 8-5 with a 2.90 ERA, has faced 77 batters at Coors in his career and never yielded a home run. The big right-hander reportedly has made some changes in his delivery to avoid tipping pitches, and he has allowed just two runs in his last 22 innings. He retired 17 of the first 18 batters he faced on Monday. Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson, who always seems to be in the middle of something (witness his pratfall between third base and home on Sunday), had two of the Rockies’ three hits. P.S. Jarrod Dyson, the former Southwest Mississippi CC standout, went 3-for-3 with two RBIs, a run and a pair of stolen bases in helping Kansas City beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3. Dyson is batting .305 with 12 stolen bases in 51 games (105 at-bats). … UM product Aaron Barrett (1.75 ERA) pitched a scoreless inning as Washington beat Milwaukee 3-0 in a matchup of National League division leaders.

19 Jun

a few small things

Just for the record, Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson was the only Colorado batter to reach base (via an error) during Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. And Dickerson also made the final out, fanning at a breaking ball to become Kershaw’s 15th strikeout victim in the 8-0 gem. … Resurgent Cincinnati, which beat Pittsburgh 11-4 to reach .500 (35-35) for the first time since April 2, has gotten contributions of late not only from Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (now batting .278) but also from the other Mississippi connection on the team, Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart. Cozart had two hits on Wednesday and is batting .306 during the Reds’ current 7-3 run. … Former Southwest Mississippi CC star Jarrod Dyson went 1-for-3 as Kansas City won its 10th straight game, 2-1 over Detroit. Dyson is batting .300 with seven RBIs, 14 runs and 10 steals in 46 games for the first-place Royals. … UM product Aaron Barrett got one out and the win — he’s 3-0 — in first-place Washington’s 6-5 victory over Houston. The Nationals and slumping Atlanta start a big National League East series tonight. … Ex-Rebels standout Seth Smith went 1-for-4 as San Diego beat Seattle 2-1 on Tony Gwynn tribute night at Petco Park. … Lance Lynn, another UM product, took a loss for St. Louis against the New York Mets despite allowing just two runs in six innings of a 3-2 defeat. Lynn is 1-3 in his last four starts, 7-5 with a 3.15 ERA overall.

03 Jun

ups and downs

Former Delta State star Eli Whiteside is back in the big leagues, promoted by the Chicago Cubs today when No. 1 catcher Welington Castillo went on the disabled list. Whiteside, who last appeared in the majors in 2012 (see previous post), was batting .171 at Triple-A Iowa. He is not in tonight’s lineup, but when he does get in, he’ll be the 24th Mississippian to appear in the majors in 2014. … Meanwhile, former Mississippi State standout Tyler Moore is going back to Triple-A Syracuse, sent down by Washington when Ryan Zimmerman was activated from the DL. Moore, an outfielder/first baseman, has been on an elevator ride: He started the season in Syracuse, was recalled on April 6, went down on May 7, was recalled on May 11 and now is shipped out again. He was batting .214 with three homers in 70 at-bats for the Nationals.

20 May

worth noting

When former Picayune High star T.J. House made his big league debut last Saturday for Cleveland, he became the 23rd Mississippi-connected player to appear in the majors in 2014. House, a left-hander, pitched a scoreless inning in his only appearance to date. He was called up last season but didn’t get in a game. The only other Mississippian to debut this year is Aaron Barrett, the Ole Miss product who has been outstanding working out of Washington’s bullpen. Barrett, a righty, has a 0.53 ERA and a 2-0 record in 18 games for the Nationals, who are battling Atlanta for first place in the National League East.

13 May

big league chew

Oakland will hand Drew Pomeranz the ball again tonight for his second start of the season. The former Ole Miss standout threw five scoreless innings as a starter last Wednesday after working only in relief in his first nine appearances and posting a sub-2.00 ERA. The former first-round draft pick is 16-9 with a 2.97 ERA as a starter in the minors but has not had that kind of success in the big leagues. His career ERA is 4.75, working primarily as a starter for Colorado since 2011. The A’s got left-hander Pomeranz in an off-season trade. He’ll go tonight against the Chicago White Sox at O.Co Coliseum. … Mississippi State product Tyler Moore, back up with Washington, hit his third home run of 2014 (in 37 at-bats) on Monday night. He hit just four last season in 167 ABs after blasting 10 in 156 as a rookie in 2012. … Keep an eye on Ole Miss product Seth Smith, of the San Diego Padres, who was named the National League player of the week on Monday on the heels of a 14-for-28 streak that has lifted his average to .330. Ex-Itawamba Community College star Desmond Jennings, with Tampa Bay, is 2-for-24 since winning American League player of the week honors on May 5.

08 May

ups and downs

The new job seems to be working out fine for Seth Smith. The former Hillcrest Christian and Ole Miss star, in his first year with San Diego, is batting .344 over his last 10 games and is at .295 for the year with two homers and seven RBIs. He batted .253 last season in Oakland. … Mississippi State product Tyler Moore, batting .200 in limited work for Washington, has been sent down to Triple-A Syracuse to make room on the roster for pitcher Doug Fister, coming off the disabled list. … Meridian Community College alumnus Corey Dickerson went 1-for-4 with two RBIs in Colorado’s 9-2 thumping of Texas on Wednesday. He is batting .348 with two homers and seven RBIs as a part-time outfielder. … Ex-MCC star Cliff Lee allowed six runs in 6 1/3 innings as Philadelphia lost to Toronto 10-0. Lee’s record dipped to 3-3 and his ERA jumped to 3.64. … Southwest Mississippi CC product Jarrod Dyson contributed a hit, two walks and a run and Schlater native Louis Coleman threw a scoreless inning in Kansas City’s 8-0 win over San Diego. Dyson is batting .286; Coleman, who has been scuffling, dropped his ERA to 6.30. … Billy Hamilton, the ex-Taylorsville High star, did not play in Cincinnati’s 3-2 loss to Boston. He has made just two appearances — no starts — since hurting his left hand on May 1. Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart took an 0-fer for the Reds and is batting just .200 despite a recent hot streak (.314 over his last 10). … Former Southern Miss star Brian Dozier picked up a couple of RBIs — he has 14 for the season — in Minnesota’s 4-3 loss to Cleveland.

04 Apr

winning ways

Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz, who was 0-4 with Colorado last season, got a win in his second appearance with his new team, Oakland, on Thursday night. The left-hander, converted to the bullpen by the A’s, pitched a clean 12th against Seattle and notched his first MLB victory since 2012 when Coco Crisp hit a home run in the bottom of the inning. Another former Rebels star, Lance Lynn of St. Louis, toughed out five innings against Cincinnati on Thursday to get a win in his first start of 2014. Toss in Aaron Barrett’s win in relief on Monday in his big league debut with Washington and UM alums are now 3-0.

26 Mar

on the move

Tyler Moore will start the 2014 season at Triple-A Syracuse, having been sent down Tuesday by the Washington Nationals. Moore, who played at Northwest Rankin High, Meridian Community College and Mississippi State, is a .241 career hitter with 14 home runs and 50 RBIs over parts of two seasons with the Nationals. The right-handed hitting Moore can play first base or the outfield and has power that Washington, the favorite in the National League East, surely will find use for later in this season. … Former Mississippi Braves standout Jeff Francoeur has signed a minor league deal with San Diego. Francoeur had a good spring with Cleveland but was cut last week. If you’re keeping score, Francoeur has now gone from the Braves to the Mets to the Rangers to the Royals to the Giants to the Indians to the Padres. He’s a good guy and a lot of people are hoping he’ll get some more big league time.

01 Mar

closing in?

Add to the list of Mississippians in big league camps the names of Aaron Barrett and David Goforth, both right-handers out of Ole Miss and both aspiring closers. Barrett, on Washington’s 40-man roster, made his spring debut on Friday, working a scoreless inning against the New York Mets. A ninth-round pick in 2010, Barrett overcame some early struggles in pro ball and put up a 2.15 ERA with 26 saves in Double-A last season. The Nationals have a strong bullpen, so Barrett’s chances of making the club out of camp this year don’t appear great. Meridian native Goforth, on the other hand, is trying to crack the roster in Milwaukee, which would seem to have openings for relievers. Goforth, drafted in the seventh round in 2011, went 11-8 with five saves with a 3.17 ERA between high Class A and Double-A in 2013. He moved to the bullpen shortly after his promotion to Huntsville in the Southern League. He posted four saves and a 3.75 ERA in 12 games in the Arizona Fall League and enters 2014 as a top 10 Brewers prospect. P.S. Mississippi’s baseball talent gets some well-deserved recognition in the Feb. 28-March 14 issue of Baseball America. Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton and Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs, are listed among the top 100 minor league prospects for 2014. Hamilton, who debuted last year with Cincinnati, is No. 43, Renfroe (San Diego) No. 80. Also mentioned as a possible top 50 prospect for 2015 is D.J. Davis, the ex-Stone County High standout now in the Toronto system. Bobby Bradley (Harrison Central first baseman) and Ti’Quan Forbes (Columbia shortstop) made BA’s high school preseason All-America chart, Bradley as a second-teamer, Forbes on the third team. And DeSoto Central, stocked with college prospects, was ranked No. 22 in the preseason poll, and Oak Grove was 31st. … BA also has a note on the retirement of David Renfroe, the former South Panola two-sport star who had been playing in the Boston system.