Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle usually follows a loss with the quote “We’ll shower this one off and get back at it tomorrow.”
Well, the Washington Wild Things need Niagara Falls to wash off Tuesday night’s 17-3 debacle to the Lake Erie Crushers at CONSOL Energy Park.
Washington starter Ernesto Zaragoza (5-4) couldn’t get out of the first inning for the second time in six starts as he could not get any movement on his fastball allowing Lake Erie (22-30) to score seven runs on six hits while only recording one outs.
Reliever Tyler Ferguson — who hadn’t allowed an earned run in 18 IP this season — actually did worse than Zaragoza allowing 10 runs on seven hits while hitting three batters in 2.1 IP.
14 of the first 20 Crushers batters reached base safely against Zaragoza and Ferguson.
“They didn’t have it today,” said Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto. “They were hitting their fastball. Zaragoza tried to make an adjustment, but just didn’t have the confidence after the start he had. It’s just baseball. One game on a Tuesday night.”
Wild Things newcomer Jason Ziegler was finally able to put a cap on the inferno going 3.1 innings of four-hit, no run ball while striking out two in his debut.
Washington (24-31) put together one hit against Crushers starter Hunter Adkins through four innings before finally showing some signs of life in the fifth.
Frontier League All-Star Austin Wobrock hit a one-out solo home run to right. Andrew Heck then walked, stole second and scored on a Sam Mende RBI single.
Washington put their final run on the board in the seventh when Wobrock doubled to lead off the inning and scored on a Matt Peters RBI infield single.
The 17 runs given up by the Wild Things is tied for the second-most given up by the team, one behind the 18 given up on August 17th, 2007 at Gateway where Tom Cochran received the loss.
“It only counts as one game, said Bozzuto. “It’s just one of those games that you have to wipe off and forget about it. You come back tomorrow and it could be a 1-0 game.”
Starters Lines
(WAS) Zaragoza (L, 5-4): .1 IP, 6 H, 7 R, 7 ER. 21 Pitches (15 Strikes).
(LE) Adkins (W, 3-4): 6.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K’s, 1 HBP, 1 HR. 102 Pitches (66 Strikes).
Washington will look to rebound in the second game of a three-game set tomorrow evening at 7:05.
(Photo Credit: Washington Wild Things)
