Epic loss

The Wild Things have had plenty of low points/lowlights in their 15-year history.

They have been up 2-0 in the league championship series and then lost three in a row, the last in game in one-sided 10-3 fashion.

They have lost as many as 57 games in a 96-game season.

They have finished a season 20 games out of first place.

They have used a coach-by-committee approach instead of employing a manager.

They have lost games after they were leading and within one strike of a victory.

Like every team that has ever played the game, they have lost games in blowout fashion. Heck, even the 1927 New York Yankees lost a game by 10 runs.

However, the Wild Things have never lost a game like they did Sunday at Southern Illinois.

There is nothing surprising about losing to the Miners. Southern Illinois is the best team in the league and is going to cruise to the West Division title. The Miners are 6-0 against the Wild Things and have beaten Washington in 10 of the last 11 meetings.

So a 12-10 loss for Washington to Southern Illinois is nothing new. What is different is the manner in which the Wild Things lost Sunday night.

They led 10-1 in the fifth inning.

Then they gave up 10 runs over two innings.

I cannot remember another game in which the Wild Things blew a nine-run lead and the game.

The only thing I can compare this game to was back in 2005, in a game at Rockford, Washington led 20-2 before settling for a 20-16 win.

That game, however, was a win. This was a punch-to-the-gut loss.

We keep being told that this is a good Wild Things team. It's in second place in the East and currently holding what would be a playoff spot.

Good teams don't blow nine-run leads.

And the Wild Things did so in what was actually less than two innings. The Miners scored 10 runs during a stretch in which they made only four outs.

There is plenty of room left for second-guessing. The Wild Things made only one pitching change during Southern Illinois' 10-run outburst.

The bullpen was depleted, you say, because long reliever Brian O'Keefe was making a spot start and Luke Wilkins, a starter, threw two innings of relief Saturday night. Only late-innings relievers were left in the bullpen.

Well, that's what happens when you play for weeks with only 22 active players, which is two under the Frontier League limit. Another pitcher or two might have come in handy Sunday.

After scoring 10 runs in a little more than three innings off Southern Illinois ace Rick Teasley, the Washington hitters were shut out for the final six innings by five Miners relievers. Just one run off the Miners' bullpen might have changed the way the game played out over the final two innings.

Maybe Southern Illinois doesn't have a five-run fifth if the inning didn't start with a walk. And maybe the Miners wouldn't have a five-run sixth if the inning didn't start with a booted routine grounder.

That's all a lot of ifs and buts. You can second-guess, replay games and replay scenarios all you want. It changes nothing.

The fact is, the Wild Things lost a game they should have won with ease.

It was a loss like no other in the franchise's history. It was the lowest of lows.

And it will be interesting to see how this team reacts to such a landmark loss. Do the ill-effects linger? Does the roof fall in on this team, which is only 2-7 since the all-star break? Does the team use the loss as inspiration because making the playoffs might mean a first-round series against and another shot at Southern Illinois?

We'll find out over the next few weeks.