Series leftovers

Some leftovers from the series against Gateway:

* This edition of the Wild Things has more power-hitting than any of the previous seven clubs. Washington has hit 17 home runs in 12 games, including three last night. And typically, the ball doesn't carry well at Consol Energy Park until it gets warmer and more humid than what we've we've had this spring.

In 2002, the Wild Things hit 56 homers all year.

* Thursday night was one of the few times the wind was ever blowing out to right field at CEP. It usually only blows out to left field, or in from left field. The wind, however, had nothing to do with any of the home runs that were hit to right field. Some of those shots would have gone out of any park, including Yellowstone.

* Forget the home runs, the big story of the series was the attendance, or lack thereof. The paid attendance of 1,340 for Wednesday night's game was the smallest in Wild Things history. The previous low was 1,712 for the franchise's fourth home game, June 4, 2002. While the 1,340 was tickets sold, my estimate is there was no more than 500, maybe even 400, in the ballpark. However, I don't think it was the smallest turnstile-count crowd the franchise has had. I remember, in 2002, there was a day-night doubleheader against Chillicothe on July 4. The day game, which was played when it was something like 95 degrees, probably didn't draw more than 300 to the park, though the paid attendance was more than 2,000.

The crowd of 1,815 for Tuesday night's game was the Wild Things' third-smallest. The Penguins' Stanley Cup Finals game against Detroit and the lousy weather that night had something to do with the poor attendance, but a game last year opposite the Penguins in the finals drew 2,144. And Thursday night's game drew 2,511 opposite the Penguins.

* Gateway's 13-5 win Tuesday over the Wild Things was called in the middle of the eighth inning because of rain. I still don't know why the game was not resumed.

A hard rain began falling during the inning break but the ground crew/interns tarped the field quickly and prevented the infield from turning to mud. The rain stopped after 20 minutes, but the game was called off five minutes later.

The explanation I was given was another storm was headed for Washington and it wouldn't be wise to resume play. When I called it a night and headed to bed at 2 a.m., I was still waiting for that second storm to arrive.

They have played more than 100 games at CEP under worse field conditions than they had when the rain stopped Tuesday night, which begs the question: Why wasn't the game resumed? It wasn't raining. The field was certainly playable. You can't call a game because it "might" rain.

The only reason I can come up with for not resuming play had to be either the Wild Things or the umpires felt they had no chance to come back and win. Once a game begins, the decision to stop or restart a game is up to the umpires, so the Wild Things can't say the game is over. But if the umpires did indeed say the field wasn't playable Tuesday, then why didn't an umpire check the field conditions? This wasn't done.

* Former Wild Things pitcher Tom Cochran earned a save in his debut with the Class AA Carolina Mudcats. Cochran pitched three innings Monday against Tennessee, allowing one hit (solo homer) and striking out five in the Mudcats' 9-2 win.

* Former Wild things infielder Chris Carrara has signed with Gary (Ind.) of the independent Northern League. Ex-Things shortstop Jeff Beachum also plays for Gary.