Winnipeg overwhelms Wingnuts to win American Association crown
A five-game series is supposed to eliminate the randomness of baseball and assure victory for the best team.
This series did – Winnipeg defeated the Wingnuts 11-4 on Monday night at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium to win the American Association championship, three games to two.
Randomness is never off-duty, though. Wichita starter Alex Boshers, the Wingnuts’ best pitcher during the regular season, allowed five runs before making six outs. The offense charged to support him, also one of the best in the league, had three hits in the first six innings.
Two of Winnipeg’s 17 hits were two-run home runs by former major-league outfielder Reggie Abercrombie, who had three hits and seven RBIs. The Goldeyes captured their second championship – they defeated Wichita in 2012 – and prevented the Wingnuts from winning for the second time in three years.
“They were the better team,” Wingnuts manager Pete Rose Jr. said. “They had a great series. Great pitching, great hitting, they played good defense. Really, tip your hat to them.”
There were signs that the Wingnuts were off-kilter arrived early, even if they didn’t appear to be game-changing moments at the time.
Wichita failed to turn a double play on the second batter of the game, leaving a runner at first after a relay throw skipped on the turf and off the glove of first baseman Matt Chavez. Three pitches later, Winnipeg led 2-0 on a two-RBI double by Abercrombie.
Trailing 4-0 in the second, the Wingnuts got their first two runners on base before Nick Van Stratten attempted to bunt them over and possibly reach base himself. But his punt didn’t escape the batter’s box and led to a force out at third.
The Wingnuts failed to score in the inning and for four more innings after that as Winnipeg built a healthy lead.
“It’s just another game,” Rose said. “That (missed) double play didn’t make or break us, Van Stratten’s bunt didn’t make or break us. That’s baseball. We just couldn’t pitch tonight, and that happens. What are you going to do? They did and we didn’t.”
Boshers won 12 games with a 3.29 ERA during the regular season, and he pitched Monday on three days’ rest after winning Game 2 in Winnipeg. He allowed 147 hits and struck out 66 in 123 innings this season, and on Monday Winnipeg made the most of Boshers’ pitch-to-contact style.
Boshers threw eight pitches and allowed three hits in the first, then Winnipeg scored two more on three second-inning hits. When Boshers left, the deficit was a manageable 5-0, though Wichita’s offense didn’t arrive in time to keep it close.
Winnipeg starter Kevin McGovern was a different kind of tone-setter. He kept the Wingnuts baffled for most of his six innings and confidently pitched out of trouble, leaving runners in scoring position in the second, fourth and fifth innings before Wichita scored in the seventh.
Winnipeg won the final two games in Wichita to claim the series, turning its Game 4 urgency into a more steady approach to Monday’s winner-take-all game.
“We felt good,” Abercrombie said. “After the game (Sunday), we felt good about it. We got past Game 4 – our backs were up against the wall the whole season. Fought to get into the playoffs, we fought in the first round, we fought in this game. And we pulled it through.”
Abercrombie kept expanding the lead, making it 5-0 with an RBI walk in the fourth, 7-0 with his first home run and 10-4 with his second. The Wingnuts loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh and scored two, but missed a chance for more by grounding into an inning-ending double play.
The Wingnuts had never played a championship-series Game 5, and they saw another team celebrate in Wichita for the third time in five seasons.
“We have a good group of leaders in the clubhouse and they kept us level-headed, just like any other game,” Wingnuts infielder Leo Vargas said. “It’s just unfortunate that we fell short tonight. We weren’t too amped up. We knew the task at hand and we were going at this just like any other game.”
Winnipeg | ab | r | h | bi | Wichita | ab | r | h | bi |
Heisler dh | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | Stringer 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Gonzalez ss | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Cox 3b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Cabrera lf | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | Clevlen dh | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Abrcrmbie cf | 4 | 2 | 3 | 7 | Mttlstdt lf | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Romanski rf | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Chavez 1b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Rohm 1b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Dean lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Rogers 1b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | VnStrttn rf | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Grider 2b | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | Kain cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Darvill 3b | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Medina c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Tanabe c | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Vargas ss | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Totals | 43 | 11 | 17 | 11 | Totals | 34 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
Winnipeg | 220 | 100 | 321 | — | 11 |
Wichita | 000 | 000 | 220 | — | 4 |
E — Gonzalez, Darvill 2. DP — Winnipeg 1, Wichita 2. LOB — Winnipeg 8, Wichita 8. 2B — Heisler 2, Abercrombie, Grider, Vargas. HR — Abercrombie 2.
Winnipeg | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
McGovern W,1-1 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
Capellan | 1.1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Eadington | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Abreu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
0.2
Wichita | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Boshers L,2-1 | 3.1 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
Smith | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Pardo | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Johnson | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
Devine | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Reed | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
PB — Tanabe. T — 3:31. A — 1,013.
This story was originally published September 19, 2016 at 11:44 PM with the headline "Winnipeg overwhelms Wingnuts to win American Association crown."