A lot went well for Potomac during streak
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By Robert Daski
Published: April 17, 2008
But when his team has been playing the way it has, he adopts a different tactic.
“Stay the hell out of the way,” said Knorr, the Potomac Nationals manager. “Just let ‘em go.”
Knorr’s players still seek his advice, but have relied on their experience and confidence to win 10 straight games heading into Thursday’s series opener against Wilmington, the longest current win streak in professional baseball as of April 16. Eighteen of Potomac’s 25 players — seven pitch-ers, 11 position players — have prior stints with the Class-A team.
“When your guys are experienced, they know what to do in situations,” said catcher Devin Ivany, who also played for Potomac in 2006 and 2007. “Randy’s kind of a reminder for us. Guys are still going to make mistakes. Right now we’re just making less than the other team.”
Potomac has been down this road before. It won 11 straight in August 2007 and the momentum from those victories has carried over to this year. From Aug. 20, 2007-April 16, 2008, Potomac went 22-4 and had 14 straight home wins. Potomac (10-2 as of April 16) had also won seven straight extra inning games.
But players are not wrapped up in how many consecutive games they win.
“We’re not thinking about any kind of streak,” Ivany said. “We’re going out there and playing everyday. Good things are going to happen. We’re just going to keep going out and playing the way we’ve been playing.”
The win streak has made coming to the ballpark a pleasant experience.
“Everybody’s in a happy mood even though you don’t get hits sometimes and make an error,” first baseman Chris Marrero said.
The keys to Potomac’s win streak?
One reason has been their ability to win in come-from-behind fashion. The Nationals rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat Myrtle Beach 4-3 on April 9. Down 2-0 the following night, Potomac tied the game in the seventh on Ivany’s two-run home run and won in the 10th on a solo shot by Matt Rogel-stad. The Nationals took advantage of Kinston’s sloppy defense to rally from being down 7-0 and win 8-7 in 11 innings on April 12.
Another reason has been solid pitching. Potomac pitchers have a 2.45 ERA through 12 games.
An abundance of talent has factored in as well. Of the 25 players on Potomac’s roster, six — Mar-rero and pitchers Ross Detwiler, Jordan Zimmermann, Adam Carr, Jhonny Nunez, and Zinicola — are on Baseball America’s list of top 30 Washington Nationals prospects.
The other 19 have joined in to share their love of the game.
“I think the guys we have regardless of what level or league they’re in, like to play baseball,” Knorr said. “They’re going to go out and play the best they can. We as a staff have been fortunate that these are the guys we’ve got.”
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