Jul 1, 2018 4 min read

Fastball, curveball, slider, changeup.

It is the most common and simplest pitching combination for starting pitchers in professional baseball. It’s fast, it bends, it dips, it’s slow. It takes hitters who are looking for one thing and gives them something totally different. One pitch blows past a batter, another sweeps across home plate and another takes its time, like a paper airplane gliding across the front lawn.

And when a pitcher has all those pitches working, and keeps them down in strike zone, just like the Wild Things’ Thomas Dorminy did Sunday evening, the results can be glorious.

Dorminy, a left-hander in his first season with Washington, threw a three-hit shutout as the Wild Things blanked Schaumburg 4-0 in the finale of a three-game series.

The win pushed Washington’s lead in the Frontier League’s East Division to two games over both Joliet and Lake Erie.

It was the Wild Things’ first nine-inning complete-game shutout since Trevor Foss blanked River City in July of 2016.

“That performance was very Trevor Foss-like,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said.

Dorminy (6-2) needed only 108 pitches on a steamy evening to finish what he started. Only five Schaumburg batters reached base. He issued one walk, hit a batter and struck out five.

“My fastball command was the key,” said Dorminy, who spent the last four years in the San Diego Padres farm system. “I got away with a few misses of my spots and was able to get some swings and misses when I needed them.”

Dorminy’s biggest strikeout came in the fifth inning when Washington was protecting a 3-0 lead. Zack Weigel led off the inning with a double off the wall in right centerfield and advanced to third base with one out on a ground ball.

Dorminy, however, struck out Boomers catcher James Keller and ended the threat by getting Tommy Henderson on a groundout. It was one of 17 groundball outs Dorminy induced.

“Getting the strikeout for the second out that inning was huge,” said Dorminy, a native Floridian who wasn’t even bothered by the oppressive mid-90s heat.

“No, I kinda liked it. It was a lot like Tampa.”

The outing lowered Dorminy’s ERA to 2.19. It was his second start in which he didn’t allow a run. He threw eight shutout innings in a 1-0 win June 15 at Southern Illinois.

“When he’s on and getting groundballs, like he did at Southern Illinois when he got 17 groundball outs, he has the ability to do what he did today,” Langbehn said. “He made a couple of good adjustments early in the game.”

Schaumburg is a team that is patient at the plate and puts the ball in play. The Boomers have struck out fewer times than any team in the league. On this day, all they were hitting were grounders. Washington second baseman Carter McEachern, a native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, had 11 assists and a putout, on Canada Day, of course.

“Schaumburg has some hitters who are aggressive early in the count and some hitters who are picky later, which makes it more difficult,” explained Washington catcher Kyle Pollock. “But (Dorminy) had all his pitches working for strikes.”

Pollock had a pair of run-scoring doubles. After McEachern singled off Schaumburg starter Payton Lobdell (1-4) in the third inning, Pollock doubled into the left-field corner to give Washington a 3-0 lead. Roman Collins drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, stole second base and scored when Pollock dropped a hit into left field that bounced high and over the head of the Boomers’ Ty Moore for an artificial-turf double.

Collins opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first inning. Brett Marr’s sacrifice fly scored Jordan Edgerton and made it 2-0 in the second inning.

Extra bases

The Wild Things stole four bases, including two by Collins. … Washington begins a three-game series Tuesday at Florence and returns home Friday for a weekend series against Evansville. … The lineups for the Frontier League’s All-Star Game at River City will be announced this week. … Former major league slugger Jose Canseco’s three-game run with the Normal CornBelters ended Sunday. Canseco batted first and struck out on six pitches in his only plate appearance in Normal’s loss to Florence. In three games, Canseco, 53, went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.