Richardson’s grand slam dooms Wild Things
The first three times Zade Richardson stepped to the plate Tuesday night at Wild Things Park, the Florence designated hitter had nothing to show for his efforts.
Three at-bats, three strikeouts. The first two swinging, the third on a called third strike.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet your star of the game.
Given a fourth opportunity, Richardson didn’t miss.
Richardson hit an opposite-field grand slam with two outs in the top of the eighth inning off Washington reliever Alex Carrillo that erased a Wild Things lead and gave Florence a stunning 5-4 victory in the series opener.
The loss, combined with Lake Erie’s 9-5 win over Windy City, dropped Washington out of first place in the West Division, a half-game behind the Crushers.
Washington, which had been held to one run in each of its three games last weekend at Lake Erie, spent the first six innings squandering scoring opportunities by running into outs on the basepaths against Florence starter Edgar Martinez.
Florence turned to reliever Ross Thompson (2-3) in the seventh. After Thompson’s first pitch, the game was delayed briefly to repair a strip of turf on the pitcher’s mound. Then Thompson’s fourth pitch was hit by Wild Things first baseman Andrew Czech for a long solo homer to right centerfield that gave Washington a 2-1 lead and appeared to give the home team plenty of momentum.
In the eighth, Washington went to its bullpen. Starter Jordan DiValerio scattered seven hits and one unearned run over seven innings. He walked one, struck out six and exited as the potential winning pitcher.
That changed in the eighth as the hard-throwing Carrillo (1-1) gave up a leadoff walk to rookie Blaze O’Saben, who stole second base. The Y’alls’ Craig Massey then ran the count to 3-2 before Carrillo inexplicably committed a pitch clock violation that gave Massey a walk.
The runners advanced on a bunt by Brian Fuentas and Hank Zeisler was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Carillo struck out T.J. Reeves, who entered the game as one of the hottest hitters in the Frontier League, for the inning’s second out.
That brought up Richardson, who had produced nothing in his first three plate appearances. This time, however, he hit a high fly ball that sent right fielder Robert Chayka back to the wall but the baseball carried over it and gave Florence a 5-2 lead. It was Richardson’s fourth home run of the year but the first since May 25.
Washington pushed across two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a Tommy Caufield broken-bat sacrifice fly that scored Caleb McNeely and Robert Chayka’s two-out double into the right-field corner that drove in Czech and made it a one-run game.
Florence closer Ben Terwilliger ended the game by striking out Carson Clowers with two runners on base. It was Terwilliger’s fourth save.
Extra bases
Prior to the game, Washington signed left-handed reliever Brendan Nail. The 28-year-old Nail, who is from Greensboro, N.C., spent six years (2017-23) in the Boston Red Sox farm system. Last year, Nail appeared in 14 games for Class AA Portland and 20 for Class AAA Worcester. Between the two stops Nail had a 3-3 record, four saves and a 2.87 ERA. To make room on the roster for Nail, Washington released Ryan Roell, who served as the emergency catcher last weekend at Lake Erie. … Washington ended June with a 28-16 record (.636 winning percentage). That is the third-best record at the end of June in the franchise’s 22 seasons. The best record was 28-14 in 2022. Washington also was 12 games over .500 at 25-13 (.658) in 2004.