Wild Things’ bats remain silent against T-Bolts
Let’s start with some good news for the Wild Things. They will get their final look at the Windy City ThunderBolts, the last-place team in the West Division, in the series finale tonight.
That’s good news because the cellar-dwelling ThunderBolts have won the season series against the Wild Things.
Buddy Pindel allowed one unearned run over eight stellar innings, first baseman Daryl Ruiz homered and drove in two runs and Windy City beat Washington for the second consecutive night, 3-1, Wednesday before 2,007 at EQT Park.
Windy City has won five of the eight games in the season series.
Pindel (6-6) scattered six hits. He walked one and struck out four.
Jalen Evans pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first professional save.
“You can’t win ballgames, and can’t win a series, when you score one run in two games,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “We’ve had, what, two runners to third base in two games?”
Windy City took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning against Washington starter Jordan DiValerio (8-4). Josh Gibson hit a two-out double down the left-field line and scored when catcher Zach Beadle, the No. 9 hitter in the lineup, singled to left field. Beadle had been 0-for-5 with five strikeouts in the series before the RBI hit.
It took the Wild Things 14 innings to score in the series. They finally broke the ice in the fifth inning and had to get creative to do so. Ethan Wilder lined a solid one-out single to left field and Kyle Edwards followed with a single to right field. A passed ball advanced both runners, and catcher Three Hiller put down a perfectly executed squeeze bunt to score Wilder and tie the game at 1-1.
It didn’t stay tied very long. In the top of the sixth, Windy City’s speedy right fielder Cam Phelts reached on an infield single to start the inning. He stole second and third bases and scored the go-ahead run when Daryl Ruiz slapped a one-out single through the right side of the infield.
The Thunderbolts had the bases loaded with one out when Washington manager Tom Vaeth lifted DiValerio and brought in closer Andrew Herbert, who worked out of the jam with a strikeout and flyout.
“That was a save situation at the time,” Vaeth said of bringing in Herbert in a non-save situation. “We needed to get out of that inning at 2-1. Our bullpen has done well.”
DiValerio went 5⅓ innings, giving up six hits and two runs. He walked one and struck out four.
Washington had a chance to tie the game in the seventh but couldn’t, because of a bad Washington bunt and a good play by ThunderBolts second baseman Josh Gibson. Andrew Czech led off with a single but was thrown out at second base when Jeff Liquori bunted back to Pindel. Wilder followed with his second hit of the night, moving Liquori to second base. Pindel struck out Edwards for the second out of the inning and pinch-hitter Tyreque Reed laced a line drive that seemed ticketed for right-center field. Gibson, however, was positioned at the right spot and made a leaping grab of the line drive to end the threat.
“One hundred percent I thought that ball was going into right centerfield,” Vaeth said. “That was the difference in the ballgame. The guy jumped and made a play.”
Ruiz padded Windy City’s lead to 3-1 by hitting the first pitch of the eighth inning from reliever Hector Garcia over the wall in right-center field.
Extra bases
Washington hitters are 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in the series. … The win was the seventh in the last eight games for Windy City. In their last 10 games, the ThunderBolts have won six times when scoring fewer than four runs. They did that only one time prior to July 26.
Deadline deal
The Frontier League’s transactions deadline is Monday, and in recent years very little activity has happened at the deadline. Managers have complained that it has become difficult to make trades within the league.
However, league sources say this year’s deadline could be far more active. One trade was made Wednesday when Ottawa, which began the day only 3½ games out of a playoff spot in the Atlantic Conference, dealt longtime ace pitcher Grant Larson (8-7, 4.20) to the Gateway Grizzlies in exchange for shortstop Pavin Parks (8 home runs, .256). Parks spent most of the season hitting in the cleanup spot for Evansville before recently being picked up by Gateway and playing only three games for the Grizzlies.
Washington is somewhat restricted in the number of roster moves it can make at the deadline. The Wild Things have only one countable transaction remaining until reaching the league limit. However, trades between Frontier League teams that involve an equal number of players do not count as a transaction.