Wingnuts’ hot-and-cold offense goes cold again in loss to Laredo

Swinging early in the count against Laredo starter Greg Holle didn’t work for the Wingnuts on Wednesday night – Wichita was 1 for 8 when putting the first pitch in play.

Attempting to wait Holle out didn’t work, either. Of the eight two-strike counts reached by Wingnuts batters, five ended in strikeouts.

Holle was successful in all situations, making for an easy night as he completed a 6-1 Laredo win at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in a tidy 93 pitches. Holle threw 10 or fewer pitches in three innings and had three more innings of 10 or 11 pitches.

The Wingnuts went down particularly quietly in the ninth, being retired on five pitches despite Jayce Ray’s leadoff, first-pitch single.

Wichita’s run totals for the last four games are 15, 1, 14, 1.

“I don’t get it,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “… You’ve got to feed off of the nights before, just roll that into the next night no matter who’s (pitching). He did a great job though, obviously. He kept us in check, that’s for sure.”

The Wingnuts tallied their only run in the third inning on doubles by Dustin Geiger and Alberto Gonzalez. David Espinosa lined out to end the third, then Holle was perfect through the next five innings and faced the minimum the rest of the way.

After Ray’s single in the ninth, Holle needed four pitches to finish off the Wingnuts, retiring Gonzalez, then Espinosa on a lineout double play.

“We had some quick at-bats – some bad at-bats, I should say,” Hooper said. “That’s the thing, you’ve got a guy rolling and you’ve got to start taking some pitches a little later in the game, try to get that pitch count up and get to the bullpen any way we can.”

That strategy didn’t work because Holle threw so many strikes that working the count meant falling behind. Holle pitched to contact and maintained his focus and command after Laredo scored three runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

Designated hitter Matt Padgett aimed for a longer at-bat in the seventh, going to a 2-2 count and fouling off a two-strike pitch before being called out on a strike on the outside corner.

Three of Wichita’s veteran hitters with the best on-base numbers in their careers, Padgett, Espinosa and T.J. Mittelstaedt were retired on first pitches five times combined.

Like their teammates, they were victims of Holle’s deceptive three-quarters delivery and willingness to let Wichita hitters put the ball in play that led to mostly weak contact.

“It looked like he was throwing most of his pitches for strikes, he kept the ball down pretty well,” Padgett said. “A guy like that, a groundball guy, he got his groundballs like he was supposed to. There just wasn’t a whole lot of pitches for us tonight to drive.”

Holle let out a “Yeah!” after a called strikeout on Luis Hernandez to end the eighth inning. It was a jubilance Wingnuts starter Jason Van Skike didn’t get to experience on Wednesday, as he allowed six runs on 12 hits to increase his ERA two points to 3.38.

Van Skike may have been affected by some tough luck early. He surrendered five hits over the first four innings without allowing a run, even though few balls were hit hard against him.

Those baserunners prevented Van Skike from finding a rhythm, though, and eventually Laredo made convincing contact. The final three batters in Laredo’s order – Kevin Taylor, Luke Bailey and Byron Wiley – combined for two singles, a double and a home run in the Lemurs’ two run-scoring innings.

“Late, he just left balls up and we’re going to get killed (doing that),” Hooper said. “He’s not an overpowering guy, so he’s got to live at the knees. He’s got to live down and if he doesn’t, he’s going to get himself hurt. Some of the bloopers I felt were up. If those balls are down, those probably don’t fall and we give ourselves a chance.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2015 at 10:46 PM with the headline "Wingnuts’ hot-and-cold offense goes cold again in loss to Laredo."