Wild Things shut out Evansville, again
Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, is a game of numbers. There is a statistic for almost everything. Want to know what a batter is hitting on 3-2 pitches in night games against pitchers born in November? Somebody, or computer program, will figure it out.
There are trends and streaks and statistics, both the time-honored ones and modern analytic numbers, for both players and teams. Most of those numbers are interesting but don’t reveal everything about teams or games.
For example, the Wild Things have a 40-6 record in games when they score the first run but are only 13-18 when the opponent does. That doesn’t mean Washington wins every time they get an early lead, but it sure helps.
There is, however, one statistic and trend that is a rock-solid lock – if you don’t give up a run, then you don’t lose.
That’s what the Wild Things have shown in the first two games of their series against Evansville at EQT Park. On Saturday night, starter Ben Kowalski and three relievers combined on a seven-hit shutout as Washington blanked the Otters, 2-0.
The shutout came on the heels of a four-hit Washington shutout win Friday night.
The Wild Things increased their lead in the Frontier League’s Central Division to eight games over both Evansville and Florence. The Y’alls lost 8-7 at Brockton. Washington has the biggest lead of any first-place team in the Frontier League’s four divisions.
In beating the Otters for the second consecutive night, the Wild Things were outhit 7-5 but managed to push across an early run and take advantage of five Evansville walks in the third inning.
“It’s hard to do it that way,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “We’re not swinging it every night. Offense is not coming easy for us. Our pitching has stepped up when we needed it the last two nights.”
Kowalski (1-1) went 6⅓ innings and allowed four hits. He walked one and struck out eight. He exited after throwing 95 pitches.
Washington pitchers have yielded only one walk in the series.
“That has been preached here from day 1 – walks kill you,” Vaeth said.
Kowalski was making his third start with Washington since being released by Kane County of the American Association, where he had a 2-3 record and an ERA above 7.00. He has looked nothing like that kind of pitcher with Washington.
“The hitting in the American Association is a little better than this league, but it comes down to I had to get back to being the pitcher I was,” Kowalski said. “With Kane County I was not locked in and feeling like myself.
“After I was released, Tom called and he just made me feel comfortable. I started pitching like my old self.”
“We knew,” Vaeth added, “that he was a strike thrower. From talking to various people we knew that he can fill up the strike zone and we knew why he was struggling. We knew by giving him a fresh start and correcting some things that he would be back to his old form.”
Kowalski was relieved with one out in the seventh inning by Michael Foltz Jr., who retired both batters he faced. Mack Anglin pitched the eighth and Landon Ginn tossed the ninth for his 11th save.
Washington pitchers struck out 11 in the game and have 21 in the series. Evansville has a 20-inning scoreless streak dating back to Thursday night.
Washington scored the only run it would need in the first inning against Evansville starter Dylan Zentko (0-2), who had an out-of-control outing. Billy Sullivan led off the bottom of the first with a single and moved up on groundouts by Connor Peek and Andrew Czech. Wagner Lagrange brought home Sullivan with a bloop double down the right-field line.
Washington made it 2-0 in the third inning when Zentko issued five walks but gave up only one run because of a caught stealing. He walked Jeff Liquori was the bases loaded to bring in Czech.
“It wasn’t like we scored four or six runs in that inning, but that one run we did get on walks was big,” Vaeth said. “A 2-0 score is a lot different in the eighth and ninth innings than 1-0.”