BREWSTER, Mass. — The Brewster Whitecaps stepped onto their home field early Friday morning trying to shake off a 15-8 loss three nights earlier. The stale taste of the loss lingered after Brewster played only once in the previous four days because of weather, forcing a split doubleheader onto Friday’s schedule.
With a second game looming for both teams, the Chatham Anglers (16-17-3) struck first and rolled to a 9-0, seven-inning victory. The Anglers left Brewster (24-10-3) with a brutal loss to shake off before taking on the No. 1 team in the Cape Cod Baseball League.
Despite the aggravating second consecutive loss, the Whitecaps were only a couple of plays away from keeping the game within reach before a rough outing on the mound and a gamble gone awry broke it open.
In the fourth inning, already down four runs, manager Jamie Shevchik pulled his infield in with a runner on third and one out. Chatham right fielder and leadoff hitter Jamie Palmese (Kansas) stepped into the batter’s box after consecutive runs scored on a fielder’s choice and wild pitch.
With weak contact already besting Brewster’s defense, Shevchik opted to stifle Chatham’s momentum and keep the runner at third. A bloop single that would have been catchable at normal depth ruined the manager’s hopes of containing the chaos.
“If we were going to have any shot at [winning the game], you are either risking an impossible climb, a massive deficit, or you are trying to keep the ballgame in reach, holding the baserunner at third,” Shevchik said. “I felt like in a seven-inning game it was going to be too big a hill to climb given how the first three innings looked like, right? … It was a gamble that didn’t go our way.”
The six-run fourth inning killed Brewster’s remaining chances, as an eight-run deficit deflated the ’Caps’ already-shrinking momentum. Starting pitching dictated the tone each team carried throughout the contest, and Brewster’s offense shrank alongside Gaines Estridge’s outing.
The right-handed pitcher got hitters into advantageous counts but failed to retire some hitters, allowing hits when a pitcher never should.
“[I] just threw too many strikes when I was ahead of the count,” Estridge said. “[I] talked to [Shevchik] about kind of showing [Chatham] my full arsenal the first time around the order, so I think that was kind of the biggest thing.”
Estridge (Air Force) entered Friday with a 1.50 ERA and only six hits allowed through 12 innings. Chatham surpassed that hit total in 3 1/3 innings.
The right-hander allowed seven hits and six runs, five earned, while striking out five and walking one. The outing raised his ERA to 4.11, but Estridge still displayed the swing-and-miss arsenal that powered his first three appearances with Brewster.
Chatham offered no offensive openings on the other side. Starter Wyatt Nadeau (Vanderbilt) and Kaysen Raineri (Texas Tech) combined for a three-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts. Brewster’s staff recorded nine strikeouts, but the Anglers turned their 11 hits into nine runs.
No Whitecap reached base twice, and the squad went 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position. After an optional rain-day hitting session Thursday, Brewster’s bats showed little improvement.
Despite two difficult losses, Shevchik remained convinced his team had not checked out.
“When your team is dead in the water, nobody shows up for an optional workout in the rain,” Shevchik said. “Guys were soaking wet. They were having fun. That doesn’t happen with most teams that are already on their way off the Cape, right? There is some hope there, but we need that to translate into today.”
With little time to linger on the loss, the Whitecaps ate, packed up and shipped off to Red Wilson Field for the second game of Friday’s split doubleheader.
Y-D erased a two-run deficit with a five-run sixth inning to defeat Orleans, 9-6, in the first game of its two-game day. The victory moved the Red Sox four points ahead of Brewster in the East Division standings.
Brewster must now win its final three games while Y-D loses its final three to take the No. 1 seed, beginning with Friday’s 4:30 p.m. meeting at Red Wilson Field.
Listen to the Whitecaps broadcast on Cape League TV or follow the game on Instagram (@brewsterwhitecaps) or X (@BrewsterCaps).
Matt Ford-Wellman can be reached at mfordwellman.media@gmail.com or on X at @MattFW_4.
