Wizards Lose 3-1 on Throwback Night

FORT WAYNE — On a chilly June night at Parkview Field – it is northeastern Indiana – the TinCaps lost to the Minnesota Twin affiliate, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, 3-1 despite a strong bounce-back outing from starter Tom Candiotti and another strong game from recently promoted leadoff hitter Kai Roberts.

Wearing their throwback uniforms from 1993, when the teams were the Wizards and a farm team of the Minnesota Twins,  Candiotti, 24, opened the game by striking out the four batters he faced and only allowed one earned run through four and two-thirds innings.

“I think you just have to trust your stuff and your abilities regardless of what the game might bring you,” said Candiotti, who struggled in his last outing, giving four earned runs and not making it out of the first inning.

“Stuff happens; it’s baseball. You have to go and compete every day.”

Candiotti threw 60 of his 85 pitches for strikes, relying on various fastballs, sliders, curves, and splitters to keep the opposition off balance.

“I thought everything was working; my slider was definitely working as a put-away pitch, and I was also landing my curve.”

The Wizards opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning with Kai Roberts’s leadoff bunt single, who then stole second and was followed by a double steal with him and Leo De Vries to put runners on second and third-—Rosman Verdugo‘s RBI single to left field to plate the first run.

In his first two games with Fort Wayne since being promoted to High-A, after missing most of the second half with a hamstring injury, the former Utah Ute was on fire, reaching base six times in his first eight plate appearances.

“He can do many things,” said his manager, Lukas Ray.  “He has a really high ceiling, and we saw that last year in Lake Elsinore when I had him there.

“He has some power there, too. It’s interesting, and he will have fun as he’s healthy and ready to roll.”

Tonight, Roberts, 24, reached base four times on two singles and a pair of walks with a pair of steals.  On his seven-game rehab stint in the Arizona Complex League, he had eight hits and six walks for a .533/.667/.933 slash line with five stolen bases.

So far, as a professional, Roberts has 22 stolen bases and has yet to be caught.

In the top of the third inning, Cedar Rapids plated their first run when Fort Wayne’s shortstop attempted to turn a tough grounder into a force out at second and threw away the ball in a spot where he should have held onto it.  It was his 11th error of the year in 31 games at shortstop.

“Leo’s defensive package is exciting to look at,” said Ray.  “Last year, he had the third-best fielding percentage in the California League at 17 behind two good defensive shortstops.

“He’s made fewer errors there than he already has this season, but he’s also getting to more balls this season than he did last year and converting more plays.  So he’s better from a processed base outcome than some of the more traditional numbers show.

“It’s also part of development, and he is trending in the right direction.  Defensive numbers and progression are really difficult to quantify.”

The Kernels added the go-ahead run in the fourth, and an insurance run in the eighth as Fort Wayne went down for their fifth straight loss and second of the series as they struck out 16 times on Thursday night.

The TinCaps will try to correct the ship on Friday, with the doubleheader to make up for the postponed game on Wednesday.