Wingnuts size up competition before likely playoff appearance

The Wingnuts emerged from their most challenging stretch of the season still looking the part of an American Association playoff team.

It’s not completely clear whether Wichita came out of last week with the appearance of a championship-level team, though.

After taking two of three games at home against division-leading St. Paul from the North, the Wingnuts lost three of four at Sioux City.

The Explorers were the first in the league to reach 70 wins and need four wins in the final seven games to break the Wingnuts’ regular-season wins record, set last year during Wichita’s championship season.

With seven games to play – all at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium – the Wingnuts (55-38) own a three-game lead over Laredo in the South. Wichita begins a four-game series against Amarillo on Tuesday night before closing the season against Grand Prairie. Neither team is in postseason contention.

“I like the way we match up with both teams,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “I’m glad that we got to see them when we got to see them.”

The Wingnuts outslugged St. Paul in two wins last week before losing a high-scoring series finale. Wichita experienced nearly every type of game in Sioux City, being blown out in both ends of a doubleheader on Friday, then winning a lopsided contest the following night.

On Sunday, Wichita led 4-1 but allowed three runs in the ninth and lost in extra innings.

The Wingnuts managed two runs in 14 innings against Sioux City’s top two starters, Patrick Johnson and Ryan Zimmerman, who have a combined 27-3 record. But Tim Brown and Scott Richmond each shut down Sioux City’s high-scoring lineup and Wichita ace Jon Link didn’t pitch in the series.

A potential postseason series could hinge on pitching matchups. Sioux City has four 10-game winners and the Wingnuts have questions beyond their top three. The Wingnuts appeared to choose pitching over offense when it traded versatile switch-hitter David Espinosa to St. Paul on Friday.

The trade allowed the Wingnuts to activate Link and avoid going over the league limit for classified veteran players.

“You throw Richmond and Link out there, you’ve got to like your chances,” Hooper said. “It was tough to move (Espinosa), no doubt.… I was open and honest with him and had a good conversation with him and he agreed that we needed to add Link to our rotation because pitching is going to do it.”

Wichita doesn’t have to beat both St. Paul and Sioux City to capture its second straight championship. Because the American Association matches teams based on geography, those teams will meet in the first round while the Wingnuts get a less difficult matchup against either Laredo, Joplin or Kansas City.

No matter who the Wingnuts play, they’ll likely enter the playoffs prepared after a week of challenging games.

“I know everybody keeps talking about the playoffs, but we need to cinch this up first,” Hooper said. “Take care of our business. We’re in a great position, up three with seven left. It’s in our hands. We need to go and rattle off four wins in a row and be done with it.”

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Wingnuts size up competition before likely playoff appearance."