Wingnuts offense fades late in loss to T-Bones

After the Wingnuts lost Friday night to Kansas City, 6-5 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, Wichita manager Kevin Hooper rhetorically asked, “Where’s the fight?”

Kansas City didn’t need to wonder about its competitiveness. While the Wingnuts were easily relinquishing important at-bats, the T-Bones were treating those at-bats more urgently.

Kansas City fouled off 16 two-strike pitches and had 14 at-bats that went at least five pitches. The difference-maker, Adam Bailey’s solo home run in the seventh, came on the second pitch, but even Hooper noticed a mindset by the T-Bones that Wichita didn’t possess when it mattered most.

“They made us work, for sure,” Hooper said. “They grinded some things out, and then Bailey had the big home run.”

The Wingnuts couldn’t capitalize on their four-run third inning, which came in response to the three runs Kansas City scored in the top of the third, and tied the score 5-5. Instead, Wichita ceded that opportunity to seize momentum to T-Bones starter Bobby Doran, who threw 68 pitches through three innings and was at a crossroads before the fourth.

Doran worked two straight perfect innings and worked around a two-out single in the sixth, throwing 27 pitches in those three innings combined and setting up Kansas City’s bullpen to work the final three while allowing one hit.

Singles in the fifth and seventh innings were all the Wingnuts managed after Luis Hernandez’s one-out single in the third that tied it 5-5. Both singles resulted in runners reaching scoring position, but the Wingnuts couldn’t find a two-out clutch hit.

“(Doran) settled down a little bit and started using some of his other pitches,” said Wingnuts first baseman Matt Padgett, who had an RBI triple in the third. “We just couldn’t really get anything going the second half of the game. They ended up hitting a couple balls out of the yard, and it’s one of those tough ones.”

Kansas City, near the bottom of the league in walks, doesn’t profile as a team to display as much patience as it did on Friday, but the T-Bones’ three home runs fit their makeup.

Jake Blackwood and Robby Kuzdale each homered in the third inning, with a error by new Wingnuts right fielder Harrison Kain in between, to take a 5-2 lead.

The Wingnuts walk a lot but don’t hit many homers, and they used those traits during the three-run third. The inning included two walks, a pair of singles and Padgett’s triple. In the second, the Wingnuts had two singles, a sacrifice fly and another triple, by catcher John Nester.

Never again did Wichita string together hits, though. After Nester walked to put runners on first and second with two outs in the seventh, Luis Hernandez popped up on the first pitch.

“I don’t get it,” Hooper said. “We need to go on a run. We all know we need to go on a run. We lose a game (Thursday) night and come back tonight – what an opportunity to win a ballgame, and we couldn’t get it done.”

Right-hander Daniel Bennett pitched the seventh for the Wingnuts, facing a string of right-handed hitters with left-hander Bailey in the middle. Wichita’s only available left-hander was Frankie Reed, whom Hooper wanted to save because two other relievers had worked extensively the previous two nights.

Kansas City took advantage of the favorable matchup, as Bailey hit an opposite-field home run to left field. That was the go-ahead and eventual winning run, but just a symbolic run to Hooper, who saw his team’s chances slowly slip away over the final six innings.

“There’s a lot” of quality at-bats the first two times through the order. “Then it went south,” Hooper said. “Disappointing. We’re hard to figure out.”

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 11:17 PM with the headline "Wingnuts offense fades late in loss to T-Bones."