Wingnuts beat Winnipeg 7-5, move within one game of title

The takeaway after the worst Wingnuts inning on Saturday night was that it was fixable.

Wichita made three errors in the second inning and allowed Winnipeg to score four unearned runs, a combination of events that was unlikely to happen again.

As the remedy became permanent, the Wingnuts’ steadiness helped them to a 7-5 win in Game 3 of the American Association championship series at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. Wichita went ahead 2-1 in the best-of-five series and can claim its second league title by winning Sunday’s Game 4.

The consistency discovered by the Wingnuts’ defense was also captured by their bullpen. Eddie Medina settled the potentially troubling early and middle innings by relieving Jesse Pratt in the third then throwing three scoreless innings.

“It’s kind of uncharacteristic for our team to do that,” Wingnuts outfielder Harrison Kain of the three-error inning. “Maybe it’s a little bit of nerves in a championship series. That’s not us at all, so I knew it was probably a fluke because we don’t do that. No one panicked.”

The Wingnuts’ five runs in the first inning meant that Winnipeg’s four in the second couldn’t be decisive. Two walks and a sacrifice fly helped the Wingnuts scored the first two runs of the inning, and all five RBIs happened with two outs.

Kain hit a three-run home run on a 3-1 pitch against Mikey O’Brien, who threw 35 pitches in the first inning and couldn’t create the momentum needed in a pivotal game.

“It’s awesome to jump out on top early,” Kain said. “It kind of makes our pitchers calm down.”

The calming of Wichita’s pitchers wasn’t complete until after the defense found a similar serenity. Winnipeg got four hits to aid its four-run second as Wingnuts starter Jesse Pratt struggled to curtail his own problems and those behind him.

Pratt walked the second batter of the third inning before being removed.

“Jesse was probably trying to do a little too much tonight, which is understandable, being a young guy,” said Wingnuts manager Pete Rose Jr., who was ejected for arguing a call at the plate in the bottom of the fourth inning. “It’s a big situation. It’s the playoffs, and young guys aren’t used to doing it.”

Medina, the Wingnuts’ long reliever, clung to the one-run lead. He stranded a baserunner at second in the third inning and allowed two hits in the fourth before leaving runners at second and third.

The Wingnuts didn’t score again until after he left, but Medina’s performance, and maybe Rose’s ejection, energized them as they added two runs in the fifth inning on one hit.

“That’s what his whole purpose in the bullpen has been in the playoffs, to be a long guy in case one of our starters got knocked out early,” Wingnuts pitching coach Luke Robertson said. “He came in and did a great job, got us to the sixth.”

It’s not a recipe for consistent success, but Pratt’s early departure may have worked in the Wingnuts favor.

It allowed them to piece together the final 6 2/3 innings with relievers who didn’t face the stress of pitching to Winnipeg’s lineup more than once. Even though Winnipeg scored on four walks by Chad Nading in the eighth inning, the Goldeyes managed one hit in the final three innings.

Closer Frankie Reed was summoned with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth and held Winnipeg, allowing a ninth-inning walk with no other damage.

“When you see the guy ahead of you throw up a zero, you don’t want to be the guy that doesn’t,” Robertson said. “They kind of feed off each other. It’s just like when we start hitting. It’s kind of contagious, guys feed off each other – you get a few (hits) and start stringing stuff together.

“It’s the same way with pitching. You start throwing up zeroes and you don’t want to be the guy that comes in and doesn’t continue that trend.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2016 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Wingnuts beat Winnipeg 7-5, move within one game of title."