May 31, 2014 4 min read

When you’re on the kind of roll the Wild Things are on these days, you can win even when you have a baserunner, or three, thrown out in a one-run game.

Washington received a strong start from Alex Kaminsky and the Wild Things’ bullpen continued its stellar pitching in a 2-1 victory over the Windy City ThunderBolts Saturday night at Consol Energy Park.

It was the fifth win in a row for Washington (10-4), which is in first place in the Frontier League’s East Division.

This time, it was solid pitching and several well-timed double plays that sent the Wild Things to victory.

Starter Alex Kaminsky (1-0), a Frontier League veteran who was making only his second appearance with Washington, went 6 1/3 innings, scattering six hits and one walk. Relievers Matt Purnell, Zac Fuesser and Jonathan Kountis combined for 2 2/3 perfect innings of relief. Kountis recorded the final three outs for his fifth save.

“Kaminsky threw a fabulous game,” Washington manager Bart Zeller said. “He was not pitching behind in the count. He did an outstanding job. He gave us just what we needed.”

And the bullpen continued its splendid work. The 2 2/3 scoreless innings dropped the collective ERA of Washington’s relief pitchers to 1.83 over 44 1/3 innings.

“These are the games you have to win – close games that come down to pitching,” Zeller said. “We didn’t hit well, but give credit to their pitcher.”

Washington also didn’t run the bases particularly well, either. After forging a 2-1 lead in the second inning, the Wild Things had two runners thrown out trying to steal second base and another picked off at first base. One of the caught stealings ended the seventh inning, when Washington had runners on the first and third and tried an ill-fated double steal with C.J. Beatty, the No. 3 hitter in the lineup, at the plate.

Washington scored the only runs it would need in the bottom of the second inning against Windy City starter Travis Tingle (1-1). With the ThunderBolts leading 1-0, William Beckwith drew a leadoff walk on a nine-pitch at-bat and advanced to second on catcher Jim Vahalik’s one-out single.

Following a popout, Danny Poma, the leadoff hitter in the Wild Things’ lineup, lined a single to center field and Beckwith beat the throw to the plate to tie the score. Garrett Rau then laced a solid double down the left-field line that allowed Vahalik to give the Wild Things the 2-1 lead they would protect for the next seven innings.

“I never expected to hold a 2-1 lead for seven innings, but our pitchers did a great job of pounding the strike zone and getting ground balls.”

Seven of those ground balls were hit at third baseman Carter Bell and produced eight outs. The most important grounder came with one out in the seventh, after Windy City put runners on first and second. That’s when Purnell replaced Kaminsky, and the reliever’s first pitch to Doug Joyce was a hard smash that Bell had pop up off his glove.

As Bell turned and caught the loose ball, he alertly tagged Max White, who was running from second base to third. Bell then continued to pivot and fired a strike to Beckwith at first base for an inning-ending double play.

“Thank goodness he had the presence of mind to tag (White) as he was running past him,” Zeller said.

Windy City had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. White, a rookie out of Oklahoma, led off the frame with a triple to left centerfield. White’s slide just did beat the relay throw from the outfield to third base.

Matt Scioscia, the son of Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia, hit a grounded out to Rau at shortstop as White trotted home with the game’s first run.

That was all Windy City could generate off Kaminsky and the Washington bullpen as the Wild Things won for the 10th time in 11 games after being swept in the season-opening series at Florence.

“We learned a lot from the Florence series,” Vahalik said. “That series smashed us in the mouth. We thought we were better than we were. You have to learn from your mistakes in baseball.”

Windy City pitcher Markus Solbach, who threw seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts Friday night against the Wild Things only to take a no-decision, had his contract purchased Saturday by the Arizona Diamondbacks. A native of Dormagen, Germany, Solbach was 1-1 with an 0.85 ERA in three starts. He allowed only nine hits in 21 innings.