Jul 4, 2024 By Chris Dugan 3 min read

If you wanted your corners painted, Wild Things Park was the place to be Thursday night.

For seven sterling innings, Washington lefty Kobe Foster had Florence hitters lunging, watching and waving at an assortment of breaking balls and sneaky fastballs that floated over the inside and outside corners of home plate. Florence hitters struggled to time Foster’s offering of various speeds.

The result was a career-high 11 strikeouts for Foster and seven shutout innings.

When Foster left the game following the seventh inning, the Wild Things were clinging to a mere 1-0 lead and that’s the way it remained to the end, but not before some tense moments.

Hard-throwing reliever Alex Carrillo took the mound in the top of the eighth to replace Foster and immediately ran into trouble. A leadoff single and hit batsman gave Florence runners on first and second with no outs.

After failing to advance the runners with a sacrifice bunt, Alberti Chavez, the No. 9 hitter in the Florence batting order, bounced into a two-strike double play as Ed Johnson moved up to third base.

There was, however, still one more out to get in the inning and Carrillo, who had been hurling 95 mph fastballs at the Y’alls, decided to borrow a page from Foster’s game plan.

Instead of trying to overpower Blaze O’Saben, Florence’s speedy leadoff hitter, Carrillo threw three consecutive breaking balls, all over the inside corner. O’Saben never lifted the bat off his shoulder on all three pitches, all called for strikes, ending the inning and Florence’s last threat.

Washington scored the only run of the game in the second inning. Newly signed Brandon McIlwain lined a one-out single to right field off Florence starter Reed Smith, who also had a spectacular pitching performance. Second baseman Evan Berkey followed with a line-drive double down the left-field line and the speedy McIlwain raced around to score from first base without drawing a throw.

Smith (4-1) allowed five hits and one run in six innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out five.

Foster (5-1), Carrillo and closer Gyeongju Kim, who pitched the ninth inning for his 12th save, made the 1-0 lead stand.

Foster allowed three hits and walked one.

Washington remained a half-game behind first-place Lake Erie in the West Division. The Crushers defeated Windy City 2-0 in a game shortened to five innings because of rain.

Extra bases

Prior to the game, Washington activated first baseman Tyreque Reed from the injured list and released corner infielder Derek Gellos. Reed had been out since he was injured sliding into third base in a game at Florence on June 1. Gellos, a rookie out of Seattle University, played in 15 games, batting .154 with one home run and six RBI. Reed started as the designated hitter Thursday and went 1-for-3. … McIlwain started in right field for Washington after signing and making his debut Wednesday in the Wild Things’ 6-3 victory. A Pennsylvania native, McIlwain spent four years in the New York Mets farm system and ended last year in Class AAA. He was in Class AA this year and played in 44 games for Binghamton before being released. Prior to signing with the Mets, McIlwain played both college football and baseball at South Carolina and California. He started six games at quarterback in his college football career.