Jul 3, 2017 5 min read

You see him out there day after day, trying to slap balls into right field in the late-afternoon sun. Batting practice might be a home-run derby to some players. But to the Wild Things’ Hector Roa, it is a time to fight the never-ending battle against pull-hitter’s disease. So he trudges out every afternoon and forces himself to hit baseballs the other way, to right centerfield.

Roa, however, still knows how to put a charge into a hanging breaking ball and pull it over the left-field wall. He did as much three times during the Wild Things’ recently completed homestand, and none was more important than his blast in the bottom of the seventh inning Sunday afternoon against Joliet.

Roa turned on a pitch from Joliet’s Luis Cruz and yanked it for a no-doubt-about-it, two-run homer that capped Washington’s three-run inning and sent the Wild Things to a 4-2 victory over the Slammers.

The win gave Washington a three-game series sweep, it’s first sweep since May. The Wild Things have won eight of their last 10 games. Roa has four homers and five multi-hit games over that span.

“I’m a heavy pull hitter,” Roa admitted. “I’ve been trying to think about going the other way, letting the ball get deeper and hitting it to right field. I’ve had some deep talks with (manager Gregg Langbehn) about not rushing my body and trusting what I see.”

Roa is a hitter who takes the approach of swinging hard in case he hits the ball, which sometimes makes him pull off pitches on the outside part of the plate. But when Roa connects, as he did in the seventh inning Sunday, the ball can travel a long way.

Roa’s seventh home run of the season gave Washington a 4-1 lead and infuriated Cruz, who thought Washington’s right fielder stood at home plate too long admiring the blast.

Cruz said something to Roa as the latter began running to first base. When Roa rounded third base and was headed to home plate, Cruz was there again.

“He told me ‘We’ll see each other, again,'” Roa recalled.

Joliet catcher Spencer Navin also said something as Roa crossed home plate and umpire Lou Kammermeier quickly directed Roa back to the dugout.

Roa’s home run came on the final pitch thrown by Cruz (3-2), who until the seventh inning was locked in a terrific pitchers’ duel with Washington starter Chase Cunningham (6-0).

To beat a pitcher like Cruz, who two years ago won seven games for the Houston Astros’ Class AAA affiliate in Fresno, the Wild Things had to be both lucky and good. The lucky part was how Washington scored the go-ahead run in the seventh. The good part was Roa’s home run.

The game was tied 1-1 in the seventh when Washington’s Bralin Jackson hit a two-out single through the right side of the infield. Kane Sweeney then lifted a towering popup into the Bermuda Triangle, between Joliet left fielder Josh Merrigan, center fielder Travis Bolin and shortstop Chaz Meadows. Meadows, who seemed to have trouble seeing the popup from the start, was the closest to the ball but was unable to make the catch. Jackson never stopped running on the play and raced around the bases to give the Wild Things a 2-1 lead.

“We’ll take the bloop double,” Langbehn said. “They were playing no doubles in that situation with their outfielders. We’ll take it.”

Roa followed with the key two-run shot that landed in the parking lot beyond left field.

“Once in a while, Roa gets outside of his comfort zone and get big with his swing,” Langbehn said. “I have to remind him of what makes him good. Hector can hit it a long way, but he becomes a really good hitter when he shortens up his swing.”

Neither team had many good swings in the game. Cunningham allowed one run and four hits in seven innings. The run came in the first inning when Danny Zardon’s two-out single drove in Merrigan from third base. The Slammers had only three more baserunners reach scoring position against Cunningham and two of those were bunted to second base.

Cruz gave up eight hits over 6 2/3 innings and escaped a couple of jams with the help of his defense.

“Both starting pitchers were really good,” Langbehn said. “Cunningham pitched his butt off. He threw 40 pitches in the first two innings, so I was concerned about getting five innings out of him. What more could I have asked from him?”

Joliet used two singles to score a run off reliever Mark Smyth in the eighth, but closer Zach Strecker got the final three outs for his 11th save and second in as many days.

Washington went 5-1 in the homestand, giving up only nine runs.

“Any time you give up nine runs in six games, you probably should win most of them,” Langbehn said. “We had been saying that we need to pitch better and we have.”

Washington made the score 1-1 in the fifth inning when Kyle Pollock’s sacrifice fly drove in Trevin Sonnier, who reached base on an infield single. … It was the 14th come-from-behind victory among Washington’s 26 wins. … Prior to the game, the Wild Things released pitcher Zach Tillery, who started two games including Saturday night’s contest against Joliet. Tillery last only 3 2/3 innings in his two starts, issued six walks and had a 17.18 ERA. Washington was down to 22 active players, which is the Frontier League minimum.