Wingnuts fall back into losing ways

The season is about one-third over, and the Wingnuts are about one-third through the process of figuring themselves out.

Every time that ratio increases, the Wingnuts have a game like Sunday’s, a 6-2 loss to Joplin at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, Wichita’s eighth loss in eleven games and fourth in a five-game series with the Blasters.

A night earlier, the Wingnuts scored 13 consecutive runs in a 16-8 win, but on Sunday Wichita was done in by more failures with runners in scoring position and a shaky sixth inning defensively, when Joplin had one hit but scored three runs.

“We’re either like this or we score 15, there’s really no in-between,” Wingnuts manager Kevin Hooper said. “It’s frustrating stuff.”

The Wingnuts recently lost starting pitchers Anthony Capra, who left last week for the Mexican League, and injured left-hander Charlie Lowell. Capra’s replacement, Scott Richmond, will make his second start on Tuesday then depart to pitch for Canada in the Pan-American Games.

With a thin rotation, Wichita needed solidification from No. 5 starter Scott Kuzminsky, who entered with an ERA over 5.00 but plenty of job security because of the uncertainty around him.

Kuzminsky matched the Wingnuts’ urgency but the offense couldn’t reward him before Kuzminsky left with a 3-1 deficit with no outs in the seventh inning. After his own error that put runners on first and second, Kuzminsky allowed a two-run triple to Jesus Solorzano that broke the 1-1 tie.

Later in the inning, an error by third baseman T.J. Mittelstaedt brought in another run. In the eighth, Solorzano drove in two more with a double off of Daniel Carela.

“We’re not just going to throw the ball around like we’ve got a tent over us,” Hooper said. “That’s not how we do things. Frustrating season so far with the group that we hav because this is a group that should be able to win a lot of games. But obviously something is not right.”

The Wingnuts’ exasperation has many levels — the recent losing streak has increased the team’s desperation, as has the fact that it came against a team they now trail by three games in the American Association South division.

Following a season in which Wichita won 78 regular-season games before capturing its first league championship has also increased the panic level, even though David Espinosa and Brent Dean were the only players in Sunday’s starting lineup who played for the Wingnuts last year.

Wichita’s record is 19-16, far from the rock-bottom its recent struggles may seem like, relatively. The Wingnuts are one good stretch from returning to first place as Joplin isn’t running away with the division, having been swept twice in three-game series this year.

“Right now, I think every time we step on the field we need to have a sense of urgency,” said Dean, a catcher. “There doesn’t need to be more pressure or anything, it’s just (that) we get guys on base, we need to score them. We’re probably in the top of the league in runners left on base. The batting averages are all fine, but we can always improve in the situational hitting.”

The Wingnuts lead the league in on-base percentage and are in the top five in runs, hits, batting average and home runs. The numbers balance out, but too many times Wichita follows its highest-scoring games with its weakest.

Sunday, the Wingnuts left 11 men on base and failed to break it open early, stranding three runners in scoring position and settling for a 1-0 lead through five innings. The Wingnuts failed to score both times the leadoff batter reached base.

“You let a team beat you at your own ballpark four out of five times,” Hooper said. “That’s not what we’re accustomed to. We’re going to continue to work, and we’ll do our best to get it right and find maybe the right pieces that will fit if it’s going to be different pieces.”

This story was originally published June 28, 2015 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Wingnuts fall back into losing ways."