Jul 20, 2023 4 min read

One of the interesting aspects of baseball is you never know what kind of game you’re going to get from night to night. Take, for example, the Wild Things’ game Thursday against the Trois-Rivieres Aigles.

The Wild Things and Aigles entered the night as two of the four Frontier League teams with pitching staffs sporting an ERA of 5.80 or higher.

So what kind of game did the two teams play? How about a tight, fast-paced and well-pitched game for eight innings.

Starting pitcher Tucker Smith threw seven shutout innings before Trois-Rivieres scratched out four late runs and held on a for a 5-2 victory to avoid a series sweep.

Washington was trying for its first series sweep since May 16-18 against New York.

Smith (6-5) threw seven shutout innings, scattering seven hits. He struck out two and did not walk a batter.

“We had our all-star pitcher on the mound,” Trois-Rivieres manager Matthew Rusch said. “He’s been giving us quality games every time out. His last outing was a complete-game shutout against Joliet.

“He’s on a hot streak. He pitches low in the zone and he’s a student of the game. He watched the first two games of the series intently and came up with a good game plan.”

Washington starter Kobe Foster (2-3) was a hard-luck loser. He allowed one run over seven innings. The lefty gave up six hits and one walk with two strikeouts.

The lone run over the first seven innings came in the second when the Aigles’ Ricardo Sanchez hit a two-out single that scored Brendan Dadson, who had doubled.

It remained 1-0 until the eighth. The Aigles’ Tyler Clark-Chiapparelli led off with a single off reliever Christian James. L.P. Pelletier followed with a bunt single and a throwing error moved Clark-Chiapparelli to third base. Nate Scantlin made it 2-0 with an RBI single.

The Aigles tacked on three more runs in the ninth, two scoring on a bases-loaded single by designated hitter Steve Brown off Stephen Knapp.

Brown has spent a lot of time on the Wild Things’ roster, maybe longer than any player who never played a game for Washington.

The Canadian outfielder was signed by Washington in February of 2020. Brown was supposed to be reunited with then-Wild Things manager Gregg Langbehn, who was his manager at Lexington in the Houston Astros farm system.

That plan fell through when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 Frontier League season to be canceled. Brown, however, was re-signed by Washington for 2021 but was traded to Trois-Rivieres in January of that year for two players who are no longer with Washington.

It was during that offseason that Rusch became Trois-Rivieres’ manager. Rusch had been the best man at Brown’s wedding and traded for his longtime friend.

“Steve and I go back a long way,” Rusch said. “He even broke up a perfect game I was pitching for Winnipeg.”

Brown, who had six RBI over the final two games of the series, said it wasn’t his idea to be traded. He added that, if he played for the Wild Things, he had an arrangement worked out to live another good friend, pitcher Jose Quintana, who was playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates at the time.

The Wild Things did their only scoring in the bottom of the ninth against Aigles reliever Frankie Giuliano. An RBI groundout by Tommy Caufield scored Tristan Peterson and Melvin Novoa raced home to score on a wild pitch.

Extra bases

Washington manager Tom Vaeth was ejected in the top of the eighth inning by first-base umpire Tim McCaffrey after arguing the play that resulted in an infield single by Brown. Vaeth was apparently arguing for an interference call against a Aigles baserunner on the ground ball, which hit to shortstop Abraham Sequera. In the first inning, Washington’s Scotty Dubrule was called out for interfering with Trois-Rivieres shortstop Austin Markman on a grounder hit by Andrew Czech.