Wild Things keep on rolling, rout New Jersey
When you’re on the kind of roll the Wild Things are enjoying, not even an usually light week of work can slow your momentum.
That much was apparent Saturday night as Washington dismantled New Jersey 13-1 at EQT Park.
Just how good have things been for the Wild Things? Let us count the ways:
— The Wild Things improved their Central Division-leading record to 21-9 and clinched their sixth consecutive series win.
— After giving up four runs in the fifth inning of the second game of a doubleheader Sunday against Florence, Washington scored 41 unanswered runs. Yes, the Wild Things had a 41-0 scoring edge this week that ended when New Jersey pushed across a meaningless run in the ninth inning Saturday.
— Zach Kirby and two relievers combined on a shutout Wednesday at Windy City. Kobe Foster followed with the fourth no-hitter in Wild Things history Friday night against New Jersey, and Maddox Long tossed six shutout frames Saturday night. Washington has a league-leading 19 quality starts (at least six innings and no more than three earned runs allowed). No other team has more than nine quality starts.
— Washington’s league-leading team ERA has dipped to 3.10, more than a 1½ runs lower than the second-best pitching staff.
And all of this has happened during a week in which Washington was on the diamond much less than normal. The Wild Things had their regularly scheduled day off Monday and then, because of a game against Windy City that was moved to the season opener, also had Tuesday off. After beating the Thunderbolts by 13 runs on Wednesday, Washington had the series finale rained out Thursday night.
That meant the Wild Things played only one game in a four-day stretch this week.
Did so much down time help Washington? Manager Tom Vaeth and left fielder Anthony Brocato both said the light schedule came at a bad time.
“It was bad timing that we had consecutive days off. I don’t think anybody was worn down,” Vaeth said. “I didn’t like not being able to hit before the game Wednesday because of rain. I don’t think we hit Sunday, so we didn’t have batting practice all week until (Friday).”
Added Brocato, “I don’t think it impacted us at all. We’ve been playing really good baseball this whole time. Having an extra day off didn’t change anything.
“Look the games we have played this week and the runs we’ve scored. We scored 13, 12, 13 and eight runs. … We scored 41 unanswered runs? I’ve never been part of something like this.”
Brocato has been a big part of the recent offensive surge. He became the first player in Wild Things history to have a three-homer game on Wednesday. Then he drove in two runs Friday and added a towering three-run homer in the sixth inning Saturday. It was Brocato’s 97th Frontier League home run.
Long (2-1), a rookie from Harding University in Arkansas, scattered five hits and did not walk a batter. He struck out six, including four in a row at one point. Long lowered his ERA to 1.32.
“Everything starts with good starting pitching,” Vaeth said. “We’ve made some good adjustments at the plate. The credit goes to the guys. They put in a lot of work to get things corrected offensively. It’s nice to be rewarded for your hard work.”
Second baseman Antonio Monroy got things started for Washington this night as he hit the first pitch of the third inning from New Jersey starter Elio Serrano (2-2) for a home run to right field and a 1-0 lead. Connor Peek followed with a single and he made it 2-0 when he scored on a two-out single by Cole Fowler.
Right fielder Ryan Ford hit a leadoff triple in the fourth and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hunter Stokely to make it 3-0.
Ford hit another triple an inning later, when the Wild Things scored three times to make it 6-0. Ford went 3-for-3 with three RBI.
Brocato hit his ninth home run of the season, and fifth in five games, in a sixth-run sixth.
Consecutive doubles by Fowler and Caleb Ketchup produced Washington’s final run in the eighth inning.
Extra bases
Right fielder Jeff Liquori was put on the 7-day injured list. … Washington will try for only its second series sweep of the season today (4:05 p.m.). … Washington catcher Collin Helms, who was a batterymate of Long at Harding, made his professional debut. He went 0-for-4 and was hit by a pitch.