Nothing decided, rain spoils Wild Things’ home opener
For 26 outs Friday night, Wild Things pitchers were solid and, at times, spectacular.
Starter Chase Cunningham breezed through seven shutout innings to increase his string of scoreless innings to begin the season to an impressive 15. Reliever Joe Ravert pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and retired two of the first three hitters in the ninth.
If professional baseball games were a tidy 26 outs, then the Wild Things would be celebrating a shutout win and a relatively dry home opener.
Instead, they had to settle for a soggy no-decision.
Windy City scored three runs with two outs in the top of the ninth to avoid a shutout and take the lead, and Washington answered with a run in the bottom of the inning before the game was stopped because of rain and eventually suspended with the score tied 3-3.
Play will resume 6:05 p.m. today. Washington will have Kane Sweeney on first base with no outs.
It was a game the Wild Things should have won, and one that Cunningham deserved to win.
Cunningham threw eight shutout innings in a win over Windy City last week and picked up where he left off. He allowed four hits and survived three walks and two hit batsmen. Washington’s defense turned two double plays behind Cunningham, who has a streak of 21 consecutive scoreless innings against the ThunderBolts that dates back to last season.
Windy City put its leadoff hitter on base against Cunningham five times, including four in a row from the fourth through the seventh, but could get only one runner to second base. Kyle Wood had a leadoff single in the fifth and moved to second on a one-out single by Blair Beck. Cunningham, however, induced a ground ball by Larry Balkwill to third baseman Mike Hill, who started an inning-ending double play.
Washington turned two double plays behind Cunningham.
Windy City starter Zac Westcott, who threw a one-hitter over eight innings against Washington six days earlier, matched Cunningham for five innings. In the sixth, Washington used three well-placed singles to take a 2-0 lead and put Cunningham in line for a win.
Washington leadoff hitter Rashad Brown had a one-out line-drive single to left field and Mike Hill drew a two-out walk. Jackson drove in the game’s first run with a grounder through the left side of the ThunderBolts’ infield, scoring the speedy Brown from second base.
Sweeney followed with a broken-bat single to right centerfield that scored Hill and made it 2-0.
That seemed like more than enough runs for Cunningham and Washington. Windy City entered the game with a paltry .175 team batting average and mustered only four hits until, with the rain beginning to fall, Wood, the ThunderBolts’ cleanup hitter, doubled off the right-field fence with one out in the ninth against Ravert.
After a strikeout and the rain falling harder, Ravert issued a walk and was replaced by Zach Strecker, who walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. Ransom LaLonde then hit a grounder to Trevin Sonnier that appeared to the game’s final out but the Wild Things’ shortstop mishandled the ball as a run scored.
Austin Darby, who was hitless on the season, then lined a single up the middle that scored Beck and Balkwill, giving Windy City a 3-2 lead.
With the rain falling even harder and much of the crowd of 3,102 having left the ballpark to beat the rain or catch the end of the Penguins playoff game, Jackson led off the bottom of the ninth by dunking a double down the right-field line against Windy City closer Brian Loconsole. Sweeney made it 3-3 with a single that scored Jackson.
That’s when the game was stopped. Following a 40-minute delay, the suspension was announced.
Washington is 7-8 in home openers and has lost two in a row. … Windy City center fielder and leadoff hitter Keenyn Walker was the Chicago White Sox’s first-round draft pick in 2011.