Wild Things climb to top with 8-7 win
Look who has the best record in the Frontier League.
With a closer-than-it-should-have-been 8-7 win over the Lake Erie Crushers Friday night, the Wild Things improved their record to 46-24, the best in the league by one game over Quebec. The Capitales, who lead the East Division, have lost seven games in a row and nine of 10.
Washington still leads the West Division by 5½ games over pesky Evansville. The Wild Things and Otters will play six times before the end of the regular season, with all six in Washington.
The climb to the top of the heap for Washington has taken 12 weeks, and at times Friday it seemed like it would take the Wild Things and Crushers that long to complete one nine-inning game. The contest started 63 minutes late because of a rain delay for a storm that bypassed the ballpark, then the teams played so long that they played right into Saturday.
When the four-hour and five-minute marathon ended, the Wild Things had overcome an early three-run deficit, then watched as a five-run lead dwindled to one in the eighth inning.
Washington fell behind 3-0 in the top of the first as an uncharacteristic error by second baseman Scotty Dubrule on what could have been an inning-ending double play grounder led to three unearned runs for the Crushers against Washington starter Daren Osby (5-3).
The Wild Things answered with two runs in the bottom of the first as a Tristan Peterson two-out single scored Jared Mang and Dubrule. Peterson led Washington at the plate, going 3-for-5.
Washington took the lead by scoring five times in the third and knocking out Lake Erie starter Kyle Seebach (1-2), who struggled with his control, as did Osby. Seebach walked two and hit two batters in the third, which included a two-run single by Nick Ward, RBI hits by Andrew Czech and Wagner Lagrange and a bases-loaded walk by Dubrule.
Hector Roa’s infield single in the sixth scored Dubrule and gave Washington a commanding 8-3 lead.
Osby went five innings, allowing three runs (all unearned) but he walked five and struck out three.
Dan Kubiuk followed with two scoreless innings before the Crushers scored four times in the eighth against rookie lefty Landen Smith to close to within 8-7. Connor Owings hit a three-run double to the wall in left centerfield to make it 8-6 and later scored on a groundout by Jackson Rivera.
Jake Pilarksi was able to get the final two outs of the eighth, and Lukas Young pitched the ninth for his 15th save in 17 chances, lowering his ERA to 1.78.
Extra bases
It was the sixth time this season that Lake Erie has played a four-hour game. … The game ended too late for the postgame fireworks show to be held. … Washington continues to move closer to becoming the fourth Frontier League franchise to win 1,000 games. The win was the 995th for the Wild Things.