La Plata High School graduate and former major league pitcher Daryl Thompson has enjoyed a long, storied career in the Atlantic League as a member of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. But last Sunday afternoon in his latest attempt to attain his 100th career victory, Thompson could not get through the fourth inning and was chased after allowing 10 runs on 11 hits.
Thompson, who was 0-3 during a brief major league career with the Cincinnati Reds, sought the 100th victory of his prolonged career with the Blue Crabs on Sunday. But the York Revolution wanted no part in that celebration.
In hindsight, Thompson actually retired the first two York batters of the contest but the visitors scored four runs on four hits before the inning ended.
Southern Maryland (27-32) has often been on the cusp of an Atlantic League title over the past 10 years, including an appearance in the 2015 championship series when Thompson was at the midway point of his Blue Crabs’ career. Two years ago, when Thompson won his third consecutive award as the league’s top pitcher, Southern Maryland went 48-18 in the first half.
“Last week we won a game 12-0 and then [Sunday] we got beat the way we did,” said Southern Maryland Blue Crabs manager Stan Cliburn, who remains 11 wins shy of reaching the 2,000 victory plateau in his career. “We haven’t been scoring many runs and today we fell behind early. We also had a couple of defensive plays that we missed that led to eight or nine runs.”
While Thompson was genuinely roughed up and dipped to 2-9 on the season and now stands at 99-67 in his Atlantic League career, his York counterpart Aaron Fletcher was perfect through three innings and still had a no-hitter in tact heading to the bottom of the seventh. But after Matt Hibbert walked, Juan Kelly ended that drama with a two-run homer to left center.
“We’ve actually been getting really good pitching all season,” Cliburn said. “Today Daryl had a rough outing and York is a really good hitting team. Right now, we’re not a good hitting team. I mean, we had one hit today, just one.”
Thompson retired the first two York batters in the first but then yielded consecutive singles to Donovan Casey and Colton Welker, a two-run double to Jacob Rhinesmith then a two-run homer to Trey Martin. York added another run in the third then chased Thompson in the fourth, plating five runs on five hits to forge a 10-0 lead.
York (39-20) continued to pad its advantage after Thompson was hooked, getting three more runs in the fourth and led 16-0 at one point until Kelly provided the only offense for the Blue Crabs with his two-run homer that ended Fletcher’s bid for a no-hitter.
Southern Maryland will continue its road trip this weekend at Charleston where Thompson will make this third attempt at reaching the 100-win milestone on Saturday. The Blue Crabs will return home on Tuesday, July 9 and Thompson would likely return to the hill for the July 12 contest against the Dirty Birds. Cliburn will continue his pursuit of 2,000 coaching wins, which could occur as early as July 13 or more likely during the July 23-28 home stand.
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