Aug 21, 2016 5 min read

You can’t be a playoff contender, even in this season of parity in the Frontier League, without a .500 record.

It has been a long climb but the Wild Things are finally back at .500.

They evened their record at 41-41 after registering one of the easiest wins of the season, an 8-1 thumping of the Schaumburg Boomers in the series finale Sunday at Consol Energy Park.

Washington scored six runs in the third inning, highlighted by Jimmy Yezzo’s three-run homer that smacked off the video board beyond right field, rookie designated hitter Alavaro Gonzalez hit his first professional home run and Matt Fraudin pitched seven strong innings.

It added up to Washington’s largest margin of victory since defeating Schaumburg by the same 8-1 score July 10, the final day before the all-star break. Washington was a season-high five games above .500 after that game but stumbled out of the break and dipped to five under by Aug. 8.

“It has been a while since we’ve been at .500,” said third baseman Ricky Rodriguez, who drove in two runs during the big third inning and also scored twice.

“We hit a rough stretch, but recently we’ve been playing good ball. We control our fate. If we play good ball the rest of the way, then we have a good chance to make the playoffs.”

The win, Washington’s ninth in 13 games, pulled the Wild Things to within a half-game of the final wild-card playoff spot, currently held jointly by Normal and River City. The Wild Things also are 2½ games behind East Division leader Joliet. Washington has 13 games remaining in the regular season.

“We were five up at the break and the next thing you know we were five below, but the one thing about this team is it has never quit,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said.

Washington’s big third inning started with an infield single by Austin Wobrock against Schaumburg starter Scott Schultz (4-6). Andrew Heck followed with a walk and Chris Grayson, who had six hits in the series, blooped a run-scoring double inside the left-field line. Rodriguez followed with a line-drive, two-run single to right field to score Heck and Grayson and make it 3-0.

Rodriguez has been Washington’s most consistent hitter. He had gone no more than two consecutive games without a hit until a recent 0-for-17 stretch dropped his batting average below .290. But Rodriguez went 2-for-4 Sunday and had four hits over the final two games against the Boomers.

“He righted himself,” Langbehn confirmed. “It was a trying issue with him. He was trying to cheat to get to the fastball and pitchers were throwing him the breaking ball and throwing his timing off. He went through a collection of misery, but he’s back. We could tell all the way back in spring training that he could hit and would be one of our best.”

Rodriguez’s single prompted a visit to the mound by Boomers pitching coach T.J. Neil. Whatever he said didn’t work as Schultz’s next pitch was drilled by Yezzo for the three-run homer.

“Yezzo knew the situation and that Schultz would try to jump ahead in the count with a fastball. He was ready for it,” Langbehn said, noting that hitting coach Mike Marshall has been trying to get his hitters to be aggressive early in the count with runners in scoring position.

That was enough offense for Fraudin (7-6), who took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and allowed one run over seven innings.

The Boomers scored in the fifth but left the bases loaded in the sixth. Washington got the run back in the bottom of the sixth when Gonzalez hit a long homer to left field. Gonzalez hit 13 home runs this spring for New Mexico Highlands, where Marshall is the associate head coach.

Washington scored an unearned run the eighth when Kyle Pollock’s single drove in Rodriguez, who had reached on an error.

Before playing what should be a pivotal four-game series next weekend against Joliet, Washington will host Traverse City beginning with a doubleheader Tuesday (6:05 p.m.).

“Traverse City might be in last place (in the East) but we have to play them like we’re playing the teams we’re trying to catch,” Rodriguez cautioned. “We can’t overlook Traverse City before we play Joliet.”

Former Wild Things Trevor Foss and Zac Grotz each pitched well Saturday night in affiliated ball but came away with different results. Grotz made his debut with rookie-level Ogden (Dodgers) and earned a win by throwing three shutout innings, allowing one hit and one walk with four strikeouts. Foss threw a complete game but took the loss for Class A Lake County (Indians) in a 2-0 setback against Fort Wayne. In 25 innings for Lake County, Foss has issued only one walk. … Washington released second baseman Jamodrick McGruder (.192). McGruder had three hits in his last 31 at-bats.