Cody Johnson continued his 2009 home run barrage, but his bat was the only one to show up Tuesday night for the Pelicans. Starters Cole Rohrbough and Brad Peacock dueled for seven innings, but the Nationals produced six runs in the fourth and eighth in a 6-1 win.
As has seemed to be the case for Rohrbough in 2009, one big inning became the left-hander’s undoing. On this night, it was the fourth after the southpaw had retired the Potomac side in order in each of the first three frames. The P-Nats’ second time through the lineup was far more productive with Michael Martinez igniting the offense Tuesday as he did Monday. Martinez led off the fourth with a double, scoring on an error charged to Pelicans first baseman Gerry Rodriguez on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Danny Espinosa. Espinosa reached on the miscue, and following a Jesus Valdez walk and a flyout by Michael Burgess, Devin Ivany doubled the pair home for a 3-0 Nationals lead.
With the deficit the same through six scoreless Pelicans offensive innings, Carolina League home run leader Cody Johnson blasted his 30th longball of the season to get the Birds on the board with two outs in the seventh. The homer was an historic one as it made Johnson the first Carolina Leaguer to break the 30-home run barrier since Daniel Peoples did it for the Kinston Indians in 1997. Cody’s total is already the franchise single season record for Myrtle Beach.
Rohrbough came out to start the eight but immediately ran into trouble, walking Greg Veloz before back-to-back singles by Boomer Whiting and Michael Martinez scored the leadoff man and ended the lefty’s night. With recently-promoted right-hander Moises Hernandez in the game, Potomac plated two more on a Danny Espinosa single. Rohrbough (6-8) pitched better than his final line, charged with six runs—five earned—on four hits over seven-plus innings.
On the other side, Peacock cruised virtually all night. The right-hander got 19 outs on balls in play to go along with his five strikeouts with Johnson’s homer his only hiccup on three hits over eight innings. Peacock (3-2) did not walk a man. Hassan Pena pitched a perfect ninth for Potomac.
The series continues Wednesday evening with the third game of this four-game set. The Pelicans have Erik Cordier (6-7, 5.74) set to go against Potomac’s Will Atwood (7-7, 4.56) with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM.
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