Wild ending

Because of an early deadline Tuesday night at the Observer-Reporter, I had some leftover items from a wild finish to Washington's 6-5 victory over the Kalamazoo Kings.

If you missed it, the Wild Things won when Kalamazoo attempted a double steal with runners on the corners and one out in the top of the ninth inning. With a 3-2 count on batter Destan Makonnen, pinch-runner Bryan Marquez attempted to swipe second base. Makonnen struck out swinging on a pitch from Washington reliever Justin Edwards and catcher Alan Robbins tried to throw out Marquez. With the Kings' Joseph Ramos breaking from third base and trying to score, shortstop Brett Grandstrand cut off Robbins' throw between the pitcher's mound and second base.

Grandstrand's throw back to Robbins was low. Robbins, however, was able to gain control of the baseball and, while still on his knees, take a big hit from Ramos. Robbins held onto the ball for the final out.

That is the way the play was originally supposed to work when Makonnen stepped into the batter's box to face Edwards. Robbins, however, wanted to change the plan during a meeting at the mound later in the at-bat.

"I think that's the first time that play has worked all year," Robbins said. "I told the infielders, with a full count, I'll just try to throw the guy out at second base."

When Grandstrand cut off Robbins' throw he wasn't sure if the catcher was expecting a return throw to home.

"Granny double-clutched on the throw because he thought Robbins was looking somewhere else," Washington manager Mark Mason said. "That's why the throw was low."

"It short-hopped me," Robbins said. "I was able to scoop it off the ground right as (Ramos) hit me. If he would have slid, then he probably would have scored. I knew he was out. When you try to run the catcher over and he hangs onto the ball, then you're usually out. You're making the tag for him."

- Paid attendance was only 1,933, the third-smallest crowd for a home game in Wild Things history.

- Is this the final homestand on a grass field at Consol Energy Park? Bids have been submitted and representatives from six synthetic turf companies were at CEP last week checking out the dimensions of the playing surface.

However, a final decision on when to install the turf had not been made as of Tuesday afternoon. The Wild Things' owners met last night and the turf situation was one of the topics.

Turf companies require at least six weeks to install a field, and work can't be done when the ground is in a freezing-and-thawing mode. California University begins its schedule at CEP early in the spring, so the only time to install a turf field is in the fall. Work likely will have to start by early October, which means the Wild Things have little time to secure bank funding, if needed. The money coming from the motel tax is spread over 10 years, so the Wild Things must generate some up-front money, either through a bank loan or out-of-pocket. These turf companies generally like to be paid in full when installing their product. They're funny about that.

Florence free-for-all

If you're not listening to the Wild Things' game at Florence tonight – and with Florence leading 9-0 in the fourth inning, nobody can blame you for not listening - there was a benches-clearing situation in the sixth inning.

After Ernie Banks hit a long home run to left centerfield to make it 9-2, Florence manager Toby Rumfield took exception to Banks' reaction to the homer and got into a confrontation with Wild Things first-base coach Jon Cahill. According to Florence radio (I'll let you tell me what Radio Randy's version was), Rumfield took two swings at Cahill as the benches emptied.

Rumfield was ejected, as was Cahill and Washington pitcher Andy Schindling.

There have been hard feelings between these teams dating back to the second game of a doubleheader in mid-June when Florence was stealing bases with a 10-run lead during its last at-bat.

Early in tonight's game, Florence's Elvis Andrus was hit by a pitch from Craig Snipp, then stared down the Washington pitcher as he walked to first base. Later, Andrus scored and collided with catcher Alan Robbins and the two had words.

The ejections of Cahill and Schindling gives the Wild Things six ejections for the year. According to Frontier League rules, when a team has five ejections the manager will be suspended for three games. At least I think it's three games. It might be five games. I don't know if the manager gets suspended for any additional games when the ejections total reaches six.

The 25-foot triple

If you weren't at Consol Energy Park last night in the eighth inning, you missed a bizarre play that resulted in the umpires enforcing a rarely applied rule and River City coming away with a triple on a sacrifice bunt.

Here's what happened:

River City, leading 7-4, had runners on first and second with no outs and Andy Reilly at the plate. It's an obvious bunting situation.

Reilly put down a perfect bunt that traveled roughly 25 feet (maybe not even that far) up the third-base line, into the grass. Washington third baseman Michael Parker charged and tried to scoop the ball with his glove. Parker snow-coned the ball and it end up shooting out the top of the glove, back toward the dirt area around home plate, to the right-hand side of Washington catcher Alan Robbins.

Robbins was holding his catcher's mask in his right hand, and in an instinctive move reached down with his mask to stop the ball. It was sorta like a hockey goalie making a quick-reaction glove save. Robbins then scooped the ball up in the mask.

When play was stopped, the umpiring crew of Jeremy Stangelo (plate) and Matt Neador (bases) advanced both runners to home plate and sent Reilly to third base. The rule they were enforcing was 7.05 B:

Each runner including the batter-runner may, without liability to be put out, advance three bases, if a fielder deliberately touches a fair ball with his cap, mask or any part of his uniform detached from its proper place on his person. The ball is in play and the batter may advance to home base at his peril.

You can make a strong case that Robbins didn't deliberately stop the baseball with his mask, but there was no doubt he intentionally scooped it up with the mask.

So how do you score the play? A check of the rulebook showed it was a triple, based on Rule 10.07 E:

... score a (triple) when the batter-runner is awarded three bases under the provision of Rule 7.05.

So there you have it, a 25-foot triple.

Up in smoke

The Wild Things awaken today with a 2-4 record and without a series win. They should be 5-1 and coming off their second series win.

The reason for the three-game difference can be summed up by two words: relief pitching.

After tying for the league lead in blown saves last year with 15, the Wild Things have failed to convert three save opportunities in the last four games, including both games of a doubleheader Thursday at Gateway. In Washington's last three losses, the opponent scored the winning run in its final at-bat.

The bullpen received a major overhaul in the offseason, but it seems the more things change the more they stay the same. Jon Lewis was brought in to be the closer, but he has two blown saves in as many opportunities, including Game 1 Thursday, when the winning run scored on a wild pitch. In the nightcap, Washington had a 7-4 lead in the seventh inning (doubleheaders are seven innings) but gave up three solo home runs that forced extra innings. Chris Demons homered in the 8th to put the Wild Things back in the lead, but Gateway scored in the bottom of the eighth and won the game on a bases-loaded hit batsman in the ninth.

For the season, Washington relievers have pitched 20 1/3 innings and given up 18 hits, 20 walks and hit four batters for a 6.21 ERA. They have a 1-3 record.

Manager Mark Mason left himself open to some second-guessing during the doubleheader. In the opener, he took out starting pitcher Zach Groh after six innings. Groh was throwing a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts and just one walk. In the second game, Matt Maradeo, who has been Washington's best reliever to date with 4 1/3 scoreless innings and no walks, was taken out after throwing two perfect innings and the game heading to the bottom of the seventh.

I wrote about this last year, but it's worth mentioning again: To me, the most impressive season by a Wild Things player was not Josh Loggins' MVP year in 2003, but Robert Garvin's 2002 season. Garvin began the year as just another arm in the bullpen but won the closer's job early in the season. He went 2-2 with 18 saves and a 2.20 ERA in 33 games. Those numbers are good, but not great, right?

Looking deeper into Garvin's season you'll find that he converted 18 of 20 save opportunities, including 18 straight. His two blown saves were in his first appearance of the year (in middle relief) and in his last outing of the regular season which, as it turned out, was a meaningless game because the Wild Things had clinched the division title only minutes earlier because of Richmond loss.

The most impressive aspect of Garvin's season was that he pitched 47 innings and issued only four walks. Think about that for a moment. Four walks in 47 innings. During one stretch, Garvin went 15 consecutive outings and 17 1/3 innings without walking a batter. Over that span, Garvin struck out 24 batters. Twenty-four strikeouts to zero walks. You think the Wild Things would like to have someone with those numbers today?

Another note from the doubleheader is Washington catcher Alan Robbins is facing a suspension after bumping the home-plate umpire following the game-ending wild pitch and play the the plate. It's never a good idea to make contact with an umpire, but it's even worse to do it when the league commissioner is in the ballpark.

The waiting is the hardest part

It's less than 24 hours until the on-field part of the Frontier League season begins for the Wild Things with their annual open tryout Saturday morning at Consol Energy Park. The Frontier League's tryout and player draft - each team must select at least 2 players - will be Monday and Tuesday in Washington.

If you check the Wild Things' roster, you might notice there are at least two positions in which depth is needed. One is catcher, where only Steve Pickerell and injured Kris Rochelle are on the roster.

The other position is first base, where Washington does not have a player with pro experience. Only Peters Township graduate Aaron Janusey is on the roster as a first baseman.

The Wild Things were expected to announce the signing of three more players as early as Wednesday, but that hasn't happened. Word is they were to sign catcher Alan Robbins, along with a first baseman/outfielder-type player and an infielder. Robbins was a teammate of Jacob Dempsey and Chris Carrara at Winthrop University and spent three years in the Philadelphia Phillies' system. he has the reputation of being a good catch-and-throw guy, better defensively than with the bat.

UPDATE: The Wild Things announced the signing of Robbins late Friday afternoon. Washington also signed one outfielder and lost another.

Signing was Alex Paluka, a Murrysville native and Franklin Regional High School graduate. Paluka played at the University of Iowa and Eastern Connecticut State before concluding his career at Point Park. Paluka played four years at Franklin Regional under Wild Things pitching coach Larry Wayman. Paluka batted only .235 for Point Park last spring.

"Alex is someone who we've worked out, and we've watched him hit. … We liked what we saw and wanted to give him an opportunity to come to camp," added Mason.

Washington also announced the retirement of outfielder Jason Appel who, judging by the current roster, would have seen significant playing time. This roster move leaves the Wild Things with only two outfielders with pro experience (none at the affiliated level), Chris Sidick and Matt Sutton. Not a good way to start camp.