Wingnuts pitchers keep T-Bones under control in 2-1 win

The Wingnuts lamented a five-run night against Kansas City on Friday and celebrated their two-run effort on Saturday.

The difference in emotion correlated to Wichita’s pitching. Jon Link, making his second start of the season, allowed one run and three relievers combined for 3 1/3 perfect innings on Saturday in the Wingnuts’ 2-1 win over Kansas City at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Link, who was a reliever in the Miami Marlins organization before being picked up by the Wingnuts this month, was fatigued by the end of his 91-pitch outing. Daniel Bennett escaped trouble in the sixth, combining with Al Yevoli and Dakota Watts for the final 10 outs.

“Great pitching,” Wichita manage Kevin Hooper said. “That’s always good – the first (reliever) comes in and does a great job, the next guy wants to come in and do a great job. And in a tight game. Those can be tough sometimes, they can go one way or the other. Guys can come in and be tight, but we talk about it a lot that we have to finish games.”

Bennett saw a difference in his own outing one night after allowing a go-ahead home run to Adam Bailey in the seventh inning. Bailey, a left-handed hitter, capitalized on a platoon advantage against Bennett, whose side-winding motion as a right-hander can be deadly against right-handed hitters.

Facing another lefty with two runners on and two outs in the sixth, Bennett induced a fly out to Vladimir Frias before striking out the two batters he faced in the seventh. Yevoli and Watts combined for four strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings.

“My process is, I gave up a home run last night, I want to be back in there the next day, get my feet wet and get it past me,” Bennett said. “It’s something that I’ve had to work on throughout my career. To me, the next day is a new day. You have to wipe the slate clean, flush it down the toilet, because you’ve still got a job to do the next day.”

Fifteen Wingnuts hitters were retired in a row at one point, and they had one hit after the first inning, but Wichita got enough offense from its first five batters.

Those included a David Espinosa single, T.J. Mittelstaedt’s RBI double and an RBI groundout by Matt Padgett. The Wingnuts ran themselves out of more runs in the first and were silent afterward, but their pitching produced similar fits for Kansas City.

“We’re big on team effort here,” Bennett said. “Everybody pitches in, that’s how we’re going to get the job done. Link came out and threw a great game, and as a bullpen we’ve got to do our part – come in and throw strikes and get people out.”

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Wingnuts pitchers keep T-Bones under control in 2-1 win."