No hitting
After getting swept in a Sunday doubleheader by the Frontier Greys -- the league's travel team -- and scoring only one run in the process, you thought things couldn't get any worse for the Wild Things' struggling offense.
Think again.
For the first time in the franchise's 14-year history, a total of 1,162 games (1,193 if you count playoff games), the Wild Things were victims of a no-hitter Wednesday night.
Washington was no-hit by Florence right-handed pitcher Casey Henn (2-6), who had lost six consecutive starts, in the second game of a doubleheader at UC Health Stadium. Henn walked one, hit one batter and the Wild Things' Danny Poma twice reached base safely via errors. Poma was originally credited with a single in the third inning, but a few innings later the official scorer changed the scoring to an error on the Florence shortstop. WJPA Radio's Randy Gore said that he agreed with the decision to score the play an error.
Washington entered the day last in the league with a .230 team batting average. The Wild Things were 12th in on-base percentage (.305) and 13th in OPS (.666).
A positive note is that Washington won the opening game of the doubleheader, 2-1, behind some stellar pitching from Luke Wilkins, Richie Mirowski and Matt Purnell and seven hits, including a home run by Poma to lead off the game.
Since scoring 13 runs in a win June 16 over Southern Illinois, Washington's offense has been mired in one of the worst slumps in franchise history. They have not scored more than two runs in each of their last seven games and have generated only seven runs over the last 56 innings. They do not have a multiple-run inning during that stretch.
I was planning to write a post tonight about the Wild Things' alarming number of strikeouts, but the no-hitter obviously takes top billing. Washington added 17 strikeouts in the doubleheader and leads the league with 293 whiffs on the season. The Wild Things are averaging 8.37 strikeouts per game, which is the most among all the teams in the five independent leagues -- Frontier, Atlantic, American Association, Can-Am and Pecos -- that start in April or May. Washington is on pace for 803 strikeouts for the season, which would be the team record.
The 8.37 strikeouts per game, however, would not be the leader among Class A affiliated teams (about half of the California League averages more strikeouts per game) but the pitching is better in affiliated ball than the Frontier League.
Washington manager Bob Bozzuto said Sunday that he knew his team would chalk up a lot of strikeouts, based on the track record of the players. He's hoping that extra-base hits will trump the strikeouts.
"We knew we would have to live with the strikeouts because it's in the their numbers," Bozzuto said. "We knew were were going to have strikeouts but also hit a lot of home runs and doubles."
Washington entered Wednesday fourth in the league in doubles and sixth in home runs.
Think again.
For the first time in the franchise's 14-year history, a total of 1,162 games (1,193 if you count playoff games), the Wild Things were victims of a no-hitter Wednesday night.
Washington was no-hit by Florence right-handed pitcher Casey Henn (2-6), who had lost six consecutive starts, in the second game of a doubleheader at UC Health Stadium. Henn walked one, hit one batter and the Wild Things' Danny Poma twice reached base safely via errors. Poma was originally credited with a single in the third inning, but a few innings later the official scorer changed the scoring to an error on the Florence shortstop. WJPA Radio's Randy Gore said that he agreed with the decision to score the play an error.
Washington entered the day last in the league with a .230 team batting average. The Wild Things were 12th in on-base percentage (.305) and 13th in OPS (.666).
A positive note is that Washington won the opening game of the doubleheader, 2-1, behind some stellar pitching from Luke Wilkins, Richie Mirowski and Matt Purnell and seven hits, including a home run by Poma to lead off the game.
Since scoring 13 runs in a win June 16 over Southern Illinois, Washington's offense has been mired in one of the worst slumps in franchise history. They have not scored more than two runs in each of their last seven games and have generated only seven runs over the last 56 innings. They do not have a multiple-run inning during that stretch.
I was planning to write a post tonight about the Wild Things' alarming number of strikeouts, but the no-hitter obviously takes top billing. Washington added 17 strikeouts in the doubleheader and leads the league with 293 whiffs on the season. The Wild Things are averaging 8.37 strikeouts per game, which is the most among all the teams in the five independent leagues -- Frontier, Atlantic, American Association, Can-Am and Pecos -- that start in April or May. Washington is on pace for 803 strikeouts for the season, which would be the team record.
The 8.37 strikeouts per game, however, would not be the leader among Class A affiliated teams (about half of the California League averages more strikeouts per game) but the pitching is better in affiliated ball than the Frontier League.
Washington manager Bob Bozzuto said Sunday that he knew his team would chalk up a lot of strikeouts, based on the track record of the players. He's hoping that extra-base hits will trump the strikeouts.
"We knew we would have to live with the strikeouts because it's in the their numbers," Bozzuto said. "We knew were were going to have strikeouts but also hit a lot of home runs and doubles."
Washington entered Wednesday fourth in the league in doubles and sixth in home runs.
posted by Chris Dugan at
8:35 PM
2 Comments:
Yay Little Tony!
Too bad it was not a standard 9 inning no hitter!
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