Kinston Indians Dominate Potomac Nationals 3-1

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - KINSTON, N.C. – Carlton Smith had never won a game above Low-A entering his start against the Potomac Nationals tonight. That would change as Smith (1-1) and his 6.10 ERA dominated the P-Nats over seven innings
 helping the Indians defeat the Nationals 3-1 Saturday night at Grainger Stadium.

 The Nationals generated no offense against the 22-year-old who used eleven
 ground ball outs to keep the Nationals bats dormant. Potomac scrapped just
 three hits off of Smith, who allowed only two runners to reach second base
 en route to his first victory of the season. Two of the three hits came
 from Francisco Plasencia, who highlighted the offensive line with a 3-3
 night.

 Meanwhile, Craig Stammen pitched brilliantly in his second start for the
 P-Nats throwing a season-high six innings. Stammen struck out three while
 giving up four hits and one run. The run, which came in the first inning
 unfortunately cost Stammen a loss. Edgardo Baez lost Adam Davis’ line
 drive in the sun to lead off the game resulting in a double. Beau Mills
 then knocked in Davis with an RBI single to right field for a 1-0 lead.

 Stammen (0-1) put up zeros the rest of the way and really showed his
 resilience getting out of a major jam in the bottom of the sixth. After
 walking Jason Denham to load the bases, Stammen induced a 4-6-3 double
 play off the bat of Beau Mills, the 2007 first-round pick of the Indians.

 The 1-0 score would hold until the bottom of the seventh when Carlos
 Martinez took over for Stammen. Martinez entered with a microscopic 0.81
 ERA in 10 appearances but struggled. With runners at first and third,
 Carlos Rivero hit a ground ball to Seth Bynum who came home, but Brian
 Peacock could not handle the throw as it slipped under his glove and he
 was charged with an error allowing a run to score. Then, with Niuman
 Romero at the plate, Martinez threw a wild pitch allowing Nick Weglarz to
 score all the way from second base and putting the Nationals in a 3-0
 hole.

 Potomac got on the board in the top of the ninth inning against Sung-Wei
 Tseng. With two outs, Marvin Lowrance fisted a double down the left field
 line bringing in Matt Rogelstad. Edgardo Baez came to the plate
 representing the tying run, but Tseng struck out Baez looking on a
 fastball to end the threat and the game. Tseng struck out all six
 Nationals hitters he faced in his two innings of work.

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