Nationals 6-0 over Mets: Erick Fedde impresses in first Grapefruit League start

Washington Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo talked last month about bringing Erick Fedde, ranked the No. 1 pitching prospect in the organization for 2017, to big league camp this Spring to get the 24-year-old, 2014 1st Round pick a taste of what competition against major league hitters is like.

“We want to get him a taste of it and see where he’s at so he’s not in awe when he gets to the big leagues,” Rizzo explained in an Sirius/XM Fantasy interview.

“He’s a guy we have high expectations [for],” Rizzo added.

In ranking Fedde at No. 52 overall on their Top 100 prospects list this winter, Baseball America’s scouts graded the hard-throwing right-hander as having a 60-fastball, a 60-slider and 50-change with 50-control on the scout’s 20-to-80 scale.

Coming into today’s game, he’d given up two hits and one unearned run in four innings of work in Grapefruit League action.

This afternoon in Port St. Lucie, FL’s First Data Field, Fedde, (whose fastball was up in the 93-95 mph range, with a nice 80-84 mph slider he located well), threw 54 pitches total over three scoreless frames in what ended up a 6-0 win over the New York Mets.

Here’s how it happened:

• Michael A. Taylor doubled to left field to start this afternoon’s game, getting one over Yoenis Cespedes’ head. Cespedes misplayed it into a man on third one batter into this afternoon’s matchup. MAT scored easily on a sac fly to center by Brian Goodwin, 1-0.

MAT improved to 10 for 24 (.417 AVG) with two doubles and two homers in 12 games this Spring.

• Derek Norris improved to 6 for 14 (.429 AVG) this Spring with a single in the second, but he and Neftali Soto, who singled to start the frame, were stranded.

• Fedde walked Matt Reynolds with one down in the third, missing with a 3-2 fastball, then gave up an opposite field single by Curtis Granderson, who beat the shift to put two runners on with one out. Neil Walker stepped in next with runners on the corners and grounded back to the mound to start an inning-ending 1-6-3.

Fedde’s Line: 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 54P, 6/1 GO/FO.

• Vance Worley made quick work of the Mets’ 3-4-5 hitters in a 10-pitch fourth and came back out for the fifth, working around a one-out single for a second scoreless frame.

• MAT singled, stole second and took third on a wild pitch to start the sixth, giving Chris Heisey a second RBI opportunity that Heisey cashed in with an RBI single off Mets’ right-hander Eric Goeddel, 2-0.

• Brian Goodwin and Clint Robinson followed Heisey with the third and fourth-straight singles off Goeddel with Robinson lining to right to bring Heisey in for a 3-0 lead, and Jose Lobaton hit a sac fly to left to score Goodwin and make it 4-0.

Fedde ranked No. 52 on BA’s Top 100 for 2017...

LINK: Nats’ prospects Robles and Fedde crack BA’s Top 100 for 2017

• Austin Voth worked around leadoff and one-out singles in a scoreless, 18-pitch sixth inning, getting Jay Bruce looking with a 2-2 fastball and Lucas Duda swinging with a 2-2 curve.

• Brandon Snyder reached base on a fly to right that Mets’ right fielder Kyle Johnson lost in the sun, turning an out into a triple, and Snyder scored on an RBI single by Nats’ outfield prospect Rafael Bautista to make it 5-0 Nationals.

• Bautista stole second on former Nats’ lefty Tom Gorzelanny and was running when Blake Perkins (2015 2nd Round pick) sent a grounder to short that got through the infield, 6-0.

• Voth came back out for the seventh and retired two batters before Jeremy Guthrie took over to record the final out of the frame. Guthrie came back out for a quick frame in the eighth and Rafael Martin finished the Mets off in the ninth.