Valdez homers twice as P-Nats beat Salem, 11-0

The scoreboard in left-center field has a new dent in it courtesy of Jesus Valdez. There are several official Carolina League baseballs smarting as well.

That’s how well Potomac ’s Dominican-born designated hitter made contact on Friday night.

“The kid can hit. I don’t know what else you can say about him. He wakes up and he can hit. Some people have it and some people don’t,” catcher Brian Peacock said. “He can roll out of bed at seven in the morning and hit big league pitching probably.”

Valdez wasn’t the only one dishing out the pain, though he was responsible for most of it – connecting for two solo home runs and a two-run single in an 11-0 win over the Salem Red Sox at Pfitzner Stadium.

The Nationals tied their season high for home runs in a game (5) before the end of the second inning and went on to establish season highs for hits (15), home runs in an inning (3) and margin of victory
(11) to move within a half game of the first-place Wilmington Blue Rocks in the Northern Division.

“We have a good hitting team. I think we lead the league in home runs,” Peacock said.

The P-Nats are by far the most prolific power team in the Carolina League with 108 home runs and, with third baseman Stephen King close to returning from a hamstring injury, they are positioning themselves for another run at the Carolina League title.

Despite the recent loss of first baseman Chris Marrero and 2009 draft pick Drew Storen to Double A Harrisburg, the current active roster still has plenty of talent – most notably Futures Game starter Danny Espinosa and CL all-star Michael Burgess.

“We’ve had a good team all year. It was bound to happen that we’d lose Chris, but we have some good unity and we play together well,” Peacock said. “Do we miss Chris? Sure, but we’ve got Timmy (Pahuta) who plays good first base and it’s not going to stop us.”

The reigning Mills Cup champions returned home from a 5-2 road trip hoping to gain some ground on the red-hot Blue Rocks, who lost to Kinston . They began the night 1½ games out of first place and faced a formidable task going up against Salem ’s Stephen Fife, a 23-year-old who once played in the Little League World Series.

Fife has been one of the Red Sox’s most effective pitchers since making his Carolina League debut on July 16, going 2-1 with a 3.13 ERA. But Potomac hit four home runs off the 2008 third round draft pick before he could get four outs.

Espinosa and Valdez hit back-to-back solo homers and Peacock drove a three-run blast over the wall in left-center field as Potomac sent eight batters to the plate in their initial at-bat.

Fife wound up facing only 10 batters and seven of them scored. His night on the mound ended following a two-run homer by second baseman Michael Martinez with nobody out in the second inning – his shortest and least productive start in what has been an otherwise brilliant season.

The Nationals kept right on hitting against reliever Armando Zerpa, tacking on five more runs in an inning and two-thirds.

Valdez was in the middle of those rallies, too. He hit his second homer on the night – this time with a drive to right field – to cap a three-run second inning and then came through with a bases-loaded single that accounted for a pair of RBI in the third.

His four runs batted in were a season high and they represented his best performance since returning from a hamstring injury on July 6. Prior to the three-hit game on Friday, Valdez ’s claim to fame was a 13th-inning, three-run walk-off homer against Frederick on May 1.

“He’s got a special talent. He hasn’t been hitting home runs since he came back (from a rehabilitation assignment in the Gulf Coast League) and we’ve been giving him a hard time about it so he goes out and hits two today,” Peacock said.

“He’s a guy we’re going to be looking for to pick up huge RBIs in clutch situations and that’s what he did tonight.”

The only drama against the Red Sox occurred when third baseman Dan Nelson sprained an ankle rounding first base following a sixth-inning single – an injury that leaves the short-handed P-Nats with 23 available players.

Manager Trent Jewett sent Pahuta from first to third and brought catcher Devin Ivany off the bench to make his first appearance of the year at first base. By then, the lead was secure and starting pitcher Will Atwood was already assured his seventh victory.

Backed by a record-setting offense and the usual sensational defense from Espinosa at short, Atwood (7-7) allowed four hits in five scoreless innings to pick up his first win since July 25.

Justin Phillabaum, Osvaldo Rodriguez and Jesse Estrada finished off the win by combining on four innings of no-hit relief.

“It makes it exciting to come to the ballpark every day when you have something to play for,” Pahuta said. “It’s easy to get up for these games because they all matter.”