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Sports

Ryan Zimmerman Cameo Not Enough for Potomac Nationals Against Frederick

The rehabbing third baseman goes 2/3 at the plate, but Frederick wins 8-1.

Ryan Zimmerman played seven innings at third base for the  Monday night as he continues his rehabilitation plan after suffering a torn abdominal muscle in April and going under the knife in May. He went two for three with a double at the plate.

The Keys scored first and never looked back, however. They scored a run in the first inning on an errant throw by shortstop Jose Lozada which allowed Bobby Stevens to scamper home. Most of their damage came in a five-run second inning. Jonathan Schoop led it off with a sharp ground ball to third that spun Zimmerman around and eventually went past him as it took a strange hop on the infield dirt. Zimmerman was not charged with an error.

“It’s good to have those, though,” Zimmerman said. “I think you have to get back out there and get into game action because those are the balls that you’re going to get every once in a while. I should have caught it, but other than that it was pretty well hit.”

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After walking Dale Mollenhauer, Trevor Holder gave up a smoking triple to Steve Bumbry, which put the Keys up 3-0. Trent Mummey sacrificed Bumbry home, and Tyler Townsend smacked a two-run home run off of the Uncle Julio’s sign in center fiel for the Keys’ sixth run.

Holder had a rough start his last time out against Lynchburg, when he lasted just one and two-thirds innings.

“He battled and just couldn’t make the adjustments tonight, and they made him pay,” Potomac Nationals Manager Matt LeCroy said.

Holder regained his form in the third and fourth innings, but after he hit Schoop and gave up a single to Mollenhauer to start the fifth, he was yanked in favor of Evan Bronson. Bronson could not hold the inherited runners. Both eventually scored after a Brian Ward sacrifice fly and a Trent Mummey single, respectively, to bring the score to 8-0.

Zimmerman saw just two other balls hit his way besides Schoop's ground ball. In the fourth inning, with a man on third and two out, Bobby Stevens had a chance to increase Frederick’s already large lead.

But Zimmerman charged his grounder and used his patented side-armed release to fling the ball over to Justin Bloxom at first base for the out. The other was another Schoop ground ball for the last out of the seventh, which was the last inning Zimmerman worked the field.

“Throwing is kind of the last thing that we’re waiting to get over that hump,” Zimmerman said. “But it felt better today than it has any day before.”
LeCroy, who played on the Washington Nationals with Zimmerman in 2006, said that managing his former teammate was strange.

“He’s a good guy,” LeCroy said. “He’s a professional, he works hard, and he was great for these guys today to see him work and to see what he goes through every day.”

P-Nats’ low run-total did not leave them void of exciting offensive plays. In the sixth inning, after Zimmerman flew out to center, Bloxom crushed a changeup for a solo home run to right-center field. The Nationals only managed to scatter a pair of doubles after that.

Eury Perez placed a perfect drag bunt up the first base line in the fifth. First baseman Tyler Townsend grabbed the bunt but couldn’t tag the speedy Perez, and he slid into first base headfirst for a hit.

“We’ve been swinging it well,” Bloxom said. “Tonight we got our hits, but they were just kind of scattered. Eight hits is a pretty good amount of hits in a game. They only got nine, but they did it timely. They got a lot of RBIs.”

The Nationals are now 13 games behind the Keys for first place in the Carolina League’s Northern Division with 13 games to play before the end of the first half. In the minor leagues, playoff berths are awarded to the teams leading their division at the end of the first half of the season and at the end of the second half of the season.

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If the Keys win Tuesday, that will eliminate the Nationals from the first-half playoff berth chase. This could allow the Nationals to work on elements of their game to prepare them for the second half of the season, but LeCroy refused to think of the remaining games in the first half as meaningless.

“We’re going to keep playing like we’re in first place,” LeCroy said.

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