P-Nats nab playoff spot with win over Kinston

With the champagne waiting on ice, the Potomac Nationals took care of business early on Saturday, winning the opening game of a doubleheader over the Kinston Indians, 2-0, to secure a berth in the Carolina League’s Northern Division playoffs.

For just the second time since becoming affiliated with the Washington Nationals, the franchise achieved a playoff berth, while stretching its winning streak to four games.  Potomac, which won the Carolina League title in 2008, faces first-half winner Frederick in the playoffs beginning Wednesday evening, but will hold the home-field advantage in the series by virtue of winning the second half.

Potomac (38-28 in the second half, 69-67 overall) won the game, despite managing just two singles. The Nationals took advantage of four walks and a throwing error by Kinston starter Joe Gardner to win the clincher. Potomac starter Trevor Holder pitched masterfully, striking out six and allowing just three hits in five scoreless innings. Pat McCoy pitched a scoreless seventh to notch his sixth save.

Given Kinston’s 10-6 mark in the season series against Potomac entering play on Saturday and the solid pitching numbers (12-5, 2.69 earned run average entering play) posted by the Indians’ starter in the opener, Joe Gardner, Potomac faced a stiff challenge to get the one win it needed to clinch the second half Northern Division title and the accompanying playoff berth.

But the P-Nats took advantage of control problems by Gardner in the first. Catcher Derek Norris and Bill Rhinehart drew consecutive one-out walks in the frame before Potomac’s  most prolific hitter, first baseman Tyler Moore, moved within three runs batted in of the all-time franchise single-season RBI record with a single to right in the first inning. Moore followed walks to Derek Norris and Bill Rhinehart with the run-scoring hit to drive in his 110^th run.

Meanwhile, Trevor Holder, a former University of Georgia standout, was truly a bulldog on the pitcher’s mound, allowing just one hit through three innings and striking out six.  The former third-round draft pick of the Washington Nationals in last year’s draft, did not allow a ball to leave the infield except the double by Chun Chen to lead off the second inning. He then retired nine consecutive hitters.

Kinston third baseman Kyle Bellows began the fifth with a single off Holder, but Abner Abreu bounced into a 5-4-3 double play to put the brakes to the inning. The Indians, who clinched a berth in the Southern Division playoffs on Friday night, managed just three hits and none of their outs left the infield.

Gardner retired 13 in a row himself after Moore’s run-scoring single, but could not overcome control problems. Francisco Soriano broke the spell by drawing a leadoff walk in the sixth, before stealing second, moving to third on an errant pickoff throw by Gardner and scoring on a single to left by Norris.

The victory capped a remarkable second half run, after Potomac finished a distant third in the first half, 10 games behind Frederick.  Several players and manager Gary Cathcart agreed the team was more united in the second half, which led to success.

“I think we molded together a little better in the second half,” Norris said. “In the first half, we had a lot of older guys and they did their own thing a little more, not that that’s a bad thing. But I think something clicked in the second half and we started playing with a purpose and believing in each other.”

That unity of purpose was apparent in the locker room between games  of the doubleheader as most of the team watched college football on the big-screen TV in the clubhouse, saving the reverie and champagne showers for after the second game.

Cathcart said the second half resurgence, which happened as “a great group came together with focus,” was “exciting to watch.”

“We started playing a bit better at the beginning of the second half,” Cathcart said. “The key was coming together as a team and I think our success came from the guys being around each other longer. We have been able to play close games and these guys learned to sacrifice for each other. I think there is a real sense of accomplishment [to gain the playoff berth].”

Moore said it was “kind of a relief” to clinch the second half title a bit early.

“We’ve been swinging the bats well and getting good starting pitching and it is kind of nice to have [the title chase] over and be able to focus on the playoffs,” Moore said. “We’ve just been trying to have fun and play our game and we are going to keep things the same in the playoffs.”

Holder said he felt a bit more urgency, but also more excitement about getting the assignment to pitch the potential clincher.

“We knew this was a big game, and I just tried to attack the strike zone with my fastball. I think playing in a game like this raises your focus for sure,” Holder (3-3) said. “We’ve been getting great defense. I don’t think we’ve had consecutive games where we have made errors [in the second half]. That’s been the key to our getting the kind of pitching we have had. And we’ve gotten good hitting, too.  Even though the stakes are higher [in the playoffs], we can’t change our game. We’ve got to keep doing what got us to this point and I think we will.”

Norris said he thinks getting better crowds in the second half helped the team succeed as well.

"We have certainly been drawing better crowds and that's been great," Norris said. "But I think it's more of a situation where we have been believing in each other more and we want to keep doing that."