Winston-Salem cools off Potomac

By Dave Utnik

Published: August 1, 2008

When the top of the fifth inning finally ended Friday and Luis Atilano's night on the mound was finished, the 23-year-old Potomac Nationals pitching prospect walked slowly across the in-field grass and back into the home dugout with a bemused expression on his face.

It was almost as if Atilano couldn't belief his own misfortune and it was difficult to blame him.

Four-run rallies can do that to anyone, even someone as gifted as Atilano, who is rapidly emerg-ing as another prized jewel in the Washington Nationals organization despite the unsightly turn of events that led to Potomac's 5-1 loss to Winston-Salem.

Just two years removed from ligament replacement elbow surgery, Atilano has rarely dealt with failure this season. Friday's defeat was his first of the season. And that was only partially his fault.

The Carolina League's Northern Division leaders actually did very little to help him out. They committed two of their three errors in the four-run fifth—right fielder Aaron Seuss dropped a fly ball on the warning track and third baseman Trevor Lawhorn misplayed a sharply hit grounder—and both miscues led directly to runs.

"You don't ever want to see that. That inning was the ball game right there," Potomac manager Randy Knorr said. "You can't have that. It's good that he got out of it, but we're still trying to compete and win games."

Paulo Orlando's two-out, two-run single, however, was all Atilano's doing. And that in itself was a surprise.

In three starts dating back to July 17 against Lynchburg, the former Braves first round pick had allowed just one run on eight hits over 15 innings—a dominating stretch that lowered his ERA to 2.39.

Five nights ago, Atilano held the Frederick Keys to one hit over five innings and the Carolina League's reigning pitcher of the week took the mound on Friday seeking his fifth consecu-tive victory.

"He's feeling good and he's starting to get back to the old Atilano," Knorr said.

Still limited to five innings per game—and 100 for the season—as he continues to make his way back from the arm injury, Atilano (4-1) needed only four pitches to retire the Warthogs in the third, but he had to face eight batters in the fifth as Winston-Salem (53-56, 23-17) turned a one-run deficit into their first victory of the year at Pfitzner Stadium.

It certainly helped that the Warthogs had Jacob Rasner (4-5) on the mound. Rasner, a cousin of former National and current Yankee Darrell Rasner, is still working his way back from a quad injury and that meant the P-Nats only had to deal with him for five innings. That was probably a good thing considering that Potomac (65-45, 23-17) has scored exactly one run against the 21-year-old right-hander this season.

"He throws a big sinker and keeps the ball down," Knorr said. "We didn't get too many hard hits off of him either. He does a nice job against us keeping the ball down."

A night after they rallied from a three-run eighth-inning deficit to beat the Warthogs in 12 innings, the first-place P-Nats scored their only run against Rasner on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Francisco Plasencia in the third.

Leadoff batter Michael Martinez went 2 for 4 to extend his hitting streak to 10 games and Boomer Whiting scored a run but the P-Nats' had their winning streak snapped at five games.

"They've got a good team over there. Every time we play them it's a good game," Knorr said. "They haven't really gotten many breaks here and for the next two [games] I hope they don't."