Anthony Capra’s eight shutout innings lead Wingnuts to 1-0 win

The first pitch Wingnuts left-hander Anthony Capra threw on Saturday night was a low strike that foreshadowed the outcome of the next 117.

Favorable calls on pitches at the bottom of the strike zone make Capra’s hallmark pitch, his change-up, even more dangerous. They force hitters to swing at change-ups in the dirt that look like strikes before they drop out of the zone.

Using the parameters of home-plate umpire Nate Rassel and his frequently dominating, if limited, repertoire, Capra shut out Lincoln for eight innings, allowing three hits with eight strikeouts, in Wichita’s 1-0 win at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The Wingnuts scored the winning run on a sixth-inning passed ball.

Capra was a fifth-inning single away from retiring the final 16 batters he faced, but he settled for 12 in a row as he settled in during the middle innings and cruised at the end.

“That’s always big for me, especially because my change-up is a down pitch,” Capra said. “(Rassel) was always consistent when he gave it to me all night, so I was able to take advantage of it.”

Two of Capra’s strikeouts were particularly opportunistic, as they represented his escapes from trouble even though he was barely bothered over the final six innings.

After Lincoln started the top of the third with a walk and a single, the Saltdogs looked to break through starting with an attempted sacrifice bunt by Matt Forgatch with designs on putting runners at second and third.

But after Forgatch failed on two bunt attempts, Capra struck him out. Two pitches later, Brian Joynt grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Those kind of quick turnarounds can help a pitcher regain control of the game, and that’s how the strikeout of Forgatch worked for Capra. He pulled a similar feat in the fifth, striking out Lincoln’s leading hitter, Mitch Canham, for the final out with a runner on second in a scoreless game.

“That’s the kind of stuff we need to make sure happens every night,” Capra said. “Do the small things, make the little things happen.”

Capra is essentially a two-pitch pitcher, using his fastball to set up the change-up, or the other way around. His breaking ball becomes unnecessary because hitters either can’t catch up to his fastball or because Capra uses their eagerness against them by finishing off at-bats with change-ups.

The key to both pitches is repetition. Capra uses the same release point and the same arm action to mimic similar velocity, even though the change-up breaks down and away to right-handed hitters.

Capra recorded seven swinging strikeouts, many on pitches that wouldn’t have been strikes otherwise.

“The change-up has a lot of downward movement, but I throw it as hard as my fastball,” Capra said. “That’s generally the key with change-ups is throwing them as hard as a fastball. My arm speed really is as hard as my fastball. If I’m locating my fastball, if I’m ahead in the count, obviously that opens it up for me to throw (the change-up) in different situations.”

Like Capra, Lincoln starter Jesse Smith wiggled out of potential damage early. The Wingnuts left the bases loaded after getting three runners on with one out in the first. Wichita left two more on in the sixth and appeared to be headed toward the same circumstance in the sixth.

After John Nester grounded out to hold Joash Brodin at third with two outs, Dustin Geiger’s walk preceded Canham’s passed ball that scored Brodin. The Wingnuts were hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position, but found a win within Capra’s superiority and one Lincoln mistake.

“We didn’t have many opportunities to get something going,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “Later on, as we kept going and (Capra) kept throwing up zeroes, we had to try to get some guys moving and put some pressure on them just to get something going.”

This story was originally published June 13, 2015 at 11:01 PM with the headline "Anthony Capra’s eight shutout innings lead Wingnuts to 1-0 win."