close

Wild Things struck by ThunderBolts, lose 6-4

5 min read
1 / 5

Wild Things’ Mike Hill beats Windy City ThunderBolts’ Riley Krane to the base for the out at the Wild Things Park on Wednesday, June 27, 2018.

2 / 5

Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Wild Things’ pitcher Aaron Burns throws against the Windy City ThunderBolts Wednesday at Wild Things Park.

3 / 5

Wild Things’ Frank Trimarco throws against Windy City ThunderBolts at the Wild Things Park on Wednesday, June 27, 2018.

4 / 5

Wild Things’ Brett Marr hits a single against Windy City ThunderBolts at the Wild Things Park on Wednesday, June 27, 2018.

5 / 5

Brady Goodenow,left, and Ava Petitte both 9 and from Morgantown, WV. race with water balloons on a spoon during Kids Day at the Wild Things Park on Wednesday, June 27, 2018.

As hard as it is to get out of a rut, it sure is easy to fall into one.

Only a little more than a week ago, the Wild Things were riding a nine-game winning streak that had them atop the Frontier League’s East Division standings by three games. Since then, Washington has lost five of seven, including a 6-4 setback Wednesday afternoon against the Windy City ThunderBolts at Wild Things Park.

While the team’s current slide is hardly a panic situation, it should be cause for some concern because all the little things the Wild Things did right during their winning streak – advancing baserunners, not making outs on the bases, getting the leadoff man in an inning on base and making smart decisions while in the field – they are no longer doing.

“You can’t play at a .700 clip all season, but you have to keep the poor play to a minimum,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn explained.

The Wild Things were able to overcome some mistakes in the series opener Tuesday night when they pulled out an 11-inning victory despite being held to only four hits. That momentum, however, did not carry over. Windy City built leads of 4-0 and 6-2 before a late Washington rally fell short. The Wild Things even made the final out of the game at second base when Kyle Pollock, who represented the tying run, was thrown out trying to tag and advance on a flyout to deep centerfield.

“For three weeks we were really good. Now, we’re not sustaining a lot of innings,” Langbehn said.

Some of that has to do with Windy City’s pitching. The ThunderBolts’ Connor Bach held Washington scoreless until the fifth inning and Dan Hlad (1-0) extended the Windy City’s streak of consecutive hitless innings by relievers in the series to seven before the Wild Things made a late surge.

“We ended up with 11 hits, but it felt like we had two or three,” Langbehn said. “We were taking poor swings, we were lethargic, the pitching was poor. The good thing is we can come back (Thursday) and win the series.”

It was a frustrating Kids Day for Washington, even in the eighth inning when it scored two runs to close to within 6-4 and had runners first and third with two outs. Center fielder James Harris, who has been the league’s best hitter so far this season, struck out looking on three pitches from rookie Jack Anderson to end the threat. All three strikes were of the called variety.

The Wild Things’ frustration level could easily be measured by the distance of Harris’ bat throw after the third strike.

Anderson, who was a starting pitcher in college at Illinois-Chicago, worked out of another jam in the ninth, aided by Washington’s overaggressive baserunning.

“We have some new guys on the roster and some of them have already been forced to pitch in tough spots,” Windy City manager Ron Biga said. “They had been doing a good job, but we played back-to-back doubleheaders last week and they were getting overused.”

Windy City’s offense, which had been in a season-long rut – the ThunderBolts had a league-low .209 batting average entering the series – also has shown signs of climbing out of the hole. The ThunderBolts have 23 hits in the first two games of the series. Windy City used solo home runs by Blair Beck and Jonathan McCray, the Nos. 7 and 9 hitters in the lineup, in the second inning off Washington starter Trevor Bradley (2-1) to forge an early 3-0 lead.

Riley Krane drove in two runs, including one in Windy City’s two-run sixth inning that was aided by Washington’s lone error of the game. Right fielder Axel Johnson went 2-for-4 and has reached base in nine of 11 plate appearances in the series.

Johnson was recently acquired from Cleburne of the American Association after he lost his spot in the lineup on that team when the Railroaders signed 20-year major league veteran Rafael Palmeiro.

“We made some changes. I think we have a good club now,” Biga said.

Washington’s Jordan Edgerton had two hits, including a two-run single in the eighth that trimmed Windy City’s lead to 6-4. Pollock had a run-scoring single in the fifth and Reydel Medina followed with a bases-loaded walk.

“We might be in a rut, but we lead the league in wins and have more wins than the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals, and those teams started six weeks before we did,” Langbehn said. “You have to take the good with the bad.”

Extra bases

One bright spot for Washington was rookie reliever James Meeker, who retired all six batters he faced, each of the last five on strikeouts. “Meeker was very good,” Langbehn said. “He has the ability to throw two or three pitches for strikes and has enough on his fastball to get it past guys if he establishes his secondary pitches.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today