At The Ballpark – Potomac Nationals at The Fitz


On July 9th, I was able to take in a game at Pfitzner Stadium (affectionately nicknamed “The Fitz”) in Woodbridge, VA to see the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the High-A affiliate for the Kansas City Royals and the Potomac Nationals, the Nationals High-A affiliate.

There is no bad seat in the house. They also have plaques of some great players who played at the stadium including Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols.

It was my first time at the park and I was impressed with the accommodations. They also had an awesome promotion – an Ode To Tommy John Surgery with this awesome giveaway.

Even though I was unable to see Victor Robles play, as he was in Miami for the Futures Game, it was a great game. Both teams were held scoreless until the Nationals scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. I was very impressed with the starter for Grant Borne.

Borne is a 23 year old southpaw drafted in the seventh round in 2015. In 61.2 innings this year he has a 2.04 ERA and 1.02 WHIP, with a 20.1 K% and 6.4 BB%. In this outing he had a career high 7 punch outs over 7 innings of two hit ball. What I loved seeing was his mound presence. He was not afraid to attack the hitters and had that “Scherzer” strut around the mound after each strike out. I love seeing a player with that intensity in-game.  While I am not sure if he has what it takes to be a starter in the bigs, I can see him getting there as a bullpen piece.

Both teams were held scoreless until the fifth inning when Edwin Lora singled and stole second when Rhett Wiseman struck out. Leadoff hitter, Jack Sundburg drove in Lora with a single to right which RF Jose Sanchez had trouble with, and advanced to second on the throw to the plate. He would later score on a single from Austin Davidson.

The Blue Rocks would answer back in the sixth with a double from D.J. Burt after Borne walked Jecksson Flores. However, that would be the only run the Blue Rocks could muster against Borne and the Nationals‘ bullpen. Dakota Bucas came on in the eighth inning and handled the rest of the game, striking out three and lowing his ERA to 1.84 in 8 relief appearances.

If you’ve visited Pfitzner Stadium and seen the Potomac Nationals play, I’d love to ear what you think of their Minor League Baseball project.  Feel free to comment below or hit me up on Twitter at @tnyfn20.

Article featured image of Edwin Lora, Potomac Nationals – courtesy MiLB.com

Shelly Verougstraete is the Nationals writer here at Prospects1500. Even as a diehard Red Sox fan, and author of sabermetric based Red Sox blog greenmonsterbb.wordpress.com, the goal here is to keep you up to date with all the happenings down on the Nats farm. Shelly lives in Virginia and has many minor league parks (A to AA) close by. Let's Go Nats!




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