Rain drowns Rosenbaum quality start; Nats Upper Minors Report 8/23

There was not much good mojo in the system Monday night.  Aaron Thompson and his 4-13 record have been one of the largest disappointments in the system. Acquired for the discerning eye of Nick Johnson last year, he has struggled mightily since teasing many with a successful spring one early spot start for Syracuse. Last night, he was absolutely shelled and gave Harrisburg no chance to win. Thompson (L, 4-13) gave up five runs in the first two innings and eight runs overall in a 10-5 Harrisburg loss to Portland. Strong offensive performances for first basemen Chris Marrero (3-5, HR) and second basemen Stephen Lomardozzi (3-5, 2B) were wasted in a game in which Harrisburg had so far to battle back.

Potomac's game might have been even more heartbreaking. They entered the 9th inning with a 3-1 lead thanks to an outstanding six innings of one run ball from prospect Danny Rosenbaum. Upon entering to "close", Justin Philabaum blew that lead immediately without recording an out. Pat McCoy managed to keep Potomac in the game despite entering with men on first and second and nobody out by recording a strikeout and inducing a double play. The fans' reward? They had the privilege of sitting through rain soaked free baseball until Pat Lehman (L, 4-4) finally cracked in the 14th inning and gave up three runs in a 6-3 Potomac loss to Wilmington. Wilmington managed to at least slow down Tyler Moore. Despite an extra inning single that helped sustain a rally that fell short, he went 2-6 with the golden sombrero of four strikeouts.

Much fail all the way around. Still a few guys managed to be lights in the darkness. Links and key performances after the jump:

• Nationalsprospects.com give their gamer on last night's Potomac meltdown.
  
• Natsfarm.com has the complete organizational rundown including guys at Vermont.
• Tip of the cap to Natsfarm.com for linking to the Patriot-News story on the Nationals decision to reup with Harrisburg for two years. Key quote for the Richmond lobby: "As we go forward, we have several situations that really aren't acceptable to us as we try to build this franchise. The work that was done [to Metro Bank Park] was a lot of years coming, and it was very, very significant in our decision," Harris said. "You want your players to be in a quality setting as they are developing and Kevin [Kulp] and his staff have provided that." Hope we get to head up there some time next year. Maybe to see a white hot Harper?
  
• John Sickels has a new AllQuestionsAsked thread up. You snooze you lose if you haven't put things in there yet. But some FB commenters like Berndaddy have got questions up about guys we care a lot about such as Tyler Moore, Eury Perez, Tom Milone, and Danny Espinosa. Certainly worth the read of the comments, but I'd wait until a little bit before game time so he has time to answer more of the Nats questions.

AAA Syracuse: Off Day

AA Harrisburg:

• Stephen Lombardozzi, 2B: 3-5, R, RBI, 2B, fielding error
  
• Chris Marrero, 1B: 3-5, R, 2RBI, HR
  
• Michael Burgess, DH: 0-3, RBI, 2BB, K

High A Potomac:

• Danny Rosenbaum, LSP: 6IP, 1ER, 1H, 1BB, 4K, 1HR
• Derek Norris, C: 1-6, RBI, 3K Apparently Norris is playing through some minor injuries. He had a sleeve on his wrist and is fighting through a sore a hamstring.
• Tyler Moore, 1B: 2-6, 4K. Apparently Moore's torrid stretch has gotten him an immense amount of media interest. I'll be interested to see if any good interviews come out.

Low A Hagerstown: Rained out, doubleheader tomorrow.