Jul 30, 2023 4 min read

When Wild Things manager Tom Vaeth put together his roster last offseason, the kind of game he envisioned it playing was what was produced Sunday against the Joliet Slammers.

Kobe Foster throwing shutout innings, Anthony Brocato and Andrew Czech hitting balls over walls, Scotty Dubrule spending much of the night on base, Wagner Lagrange getting the offense going with a two-run opposite-field hit. Each of those elements were expected by Vaeth and were in play during Washington’s 9-0 pasting of the Slammers.

“And mix in Robert Chayka being what he has become,” Vaeth said of his rookie center fielder who matched Brocato and Czech by hitting a home run.

The star of the game, however, was Foster. The second-year pitcher out of Tennessee Wesleyan threw a complete game three-hitter. It was his first career complete game and shutout. It also continued a trend of the lefty getting better with each outing since coming off the disabled list in June.

“Since the all-star break, the big difference for Kobe is his arm speed has come back,” said Vaeth, who earned his 150th career victory. “When you have more arm speed, you can get out in front of your leg and command the bottom of zone.”

Foster said he could tell in the first inning that he his full arsenal of pitches working. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and gave up only two singles plus a sixth-inning double by Phil Steering. Foster walked two and struck out six.

“The first inning I was spotting up the ball. When I do that, then I’m in good shape,” Foster said.

Foster started the homestand by pitching six innings and allowing three runs on three solo homers in a 4-2 loss to New Jersey.

“I try to learn something from every start, learn from it and take it and apply it to the next one,” Foster said. “What I learned from that one is I can’t leave the fastball up. Those three solo home runs were all fastballs up and over the middle of the plate. This game, my location was good, and I was mixing all four of my pitches.”

Foster and the Wild Things were in a good spot after the bottom of the first inning, when Washington scored two runs on a Lagrange double to right centerfield that drove in Brocato and Czech.

That was all the offense Foster needed, but he got plenty more. Washington scored in each of the first five innings, forging a 9-0 lead.

Brocato hit his 21st home run of the season leading off the third inning against Joliet starter Ryan O’Reilly (0-3). Brocato is only the fifth player in Wild Things history with at least 20 home runs in a season. The others are Jacob Dempsey, Grant Psomas, David Popkins and Josh Loggins. Dempsey is the team record holder with 31. Popkins is currently the Minnesota Twins’ hitting coach.

Washington made it 7-0 in the fourth. Catcher J.C. Santini doubled home Dubrule, who had walked, and Chayka smacked the first pitch he saw from reliever Marco Quintanar over the wall in left field for a two-run homer. It was the third home run of the season for Chayka, a rookie out of Kansas Wesleyan who has raised his batting average to .317 and should be creeping into the league Rookie of the Year discussion.

Czech made it 8-0 with a long home run to right centerfield to open the fifth. It was Czech’s 15th of the year.

Nick Gotta and Dubrule hit consecutive doubles that stretched the lead to 9-0.

The Wild Things head into a key three-game series that begins Tuesday at Schaumburg. Of Washington’s next 21 games, 18 are against teams that are currently in one of the three playoffs spots from the Frontier League’s West Division. Washington is currently in fourth place but 6½ games behind third-place Evansville.

Extra bases

Washington has only two complete-game shutouts from its starting pitchers. The first was by Justin Showalter, also against Joliet.