Wingnuts drop another to division-leading Joplin

Losses like Friday’s can be even more damaging than the two the Wingnuts endured the day before, because it wasn’t nearly as easy to grasp an explanation.

Eight errors doomed Wichita in Joplin’s doubleheader sweep on Thursday. On Friday, the Wingnuts got effective starting pitching, a bunch of baserunners and made no defensive mistakes.

Still, Joplin emerged with a 6-3 win at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. The Blasters outhit Wichita 13-3, and the Wingnuts were unable to take full advantage of nine walks by Joplin pitchers, managing a three-run sixth inning but nothing else.

That inning put the Wingnuts ahead, but Joplin scored five runs over the final three innings, finally making use of its superior hit total.

The Wingnuts have lost three straight to Joplin in a five-game series to fall behind three games in the American Association South division.

“We’re coming out working hard every day and trying to make everything happen,” Wingnuts first baseman Dustin Geiger said. “No one’s down in the clubhouse. Everybody’s still working and putting in the effort. It’s going to click. I’m not sure what it’s going to take. I’m not sure what it’s going to take, but it’s going to click and hopefully it’s (Saturday).”

Wichita’s only offense came in the sixth inning, when the Wingnuts had two of their three hits and all of their runs. It wouldn’t have been greedy for them to ask for more, but realistic, because they had the bases loaded after Matt Sample walked the first batter he faced, Brent Dean, with runners already on second and third.

To that point in the sixth, the Wingnuts had taken advantage of Joplin’s newly discovered habit of issuing walks. Jayce Ray and David Espinosa both walked with one out – Ray scored on a single by Joash Brodin and Dustin Geiger brought in Espinosa and Brodin with a double that made it 3-1.

After Dean’s walk, Luis Hernandez couldn’t prove the hit that could have broken it open.

He grounded out to second base to leave three runners stranded and keep the Joplin’s rally hopes more plausible.

“It’s getting to be the same stuff,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “It’s getting to be repetitive, what we continue to do this season. I told them, if they want to put it in my hands, we’ll put it in my hands and we’ll just see what happens. It’s pretty frustrating to watch it night in and night out.”

Hooper couldn’t have foreseen the up-and-down nature of the Wingnuts season because, he says, he fills out a lineup each night with experienced hitters capable of high-output games.

Sometimes, the Wingnuts have those – they scored 20 runs in two wins between a four-game losing streak and three losses in a row to Joplin. The meager efforts are becoming more frequent and are made more maddening by the game in which Wichita posts high totals.

Another clutch hit may have been the only think keeping the Wingnuts from another such game on Friday, and Joplin offered plenty of chances. Seven of the Blasters’ nine walks happened in the sixth inning or later but after two led to sixth-inning runs, only two Wingnuts who walked even got past first base.

The Wingnuts appear far from the team that won last year’s league championship and won 141 regular-season games the last two years. Even second place is unfamiliar territory.

“I want to win every night out, but we’re creeping on .500, let alone winning,” Hooper said. “It would be different if we weren’t seeing the same thing over and over, I think. We’ve left a lot of guys on base. We have a lot of nights where no one seems to step up. We’re a roller coaster. We’ll show up for a couple nights and be real well, but here we are the last two nights and we’re real flat.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Wingnuts drop another to division-leading Joplin."