51s win 4-3 in Alvarado's First Start of the Season | Astromets Mind

Friday, May 16, 2014

51s win 4-3 in Alvarado's First Start of the Season



Teams
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

R
H
E
Las Vegas
0
0
1
2
1
0
0
0
0

4
11
0
El Paso
0
0
0
1
0
2
0
0
0

3
6
1


The Highlights:

Pitchers

Giancarlo Alvarado (W, 1-0) – 5 IP, H, R, 6 BB, 4 SO, 92 pitches, 50 strikes (54%), 22 batters faced, 4 groundouts, 6 fly outs
Zack Thornton (H, 3) – 1.2 IP, H, 3 SO, WP, 30 pitches, 19 strikes (63%), 6 batters faced, 2 groundouts
Vic Black – 1 IP, BB, 13 pitches, 7 strikes, 3 batters faced, 2 groundouts, GIDP
Jorge Reyes – IP, H, SO, 12 pitches, 10 strikes, 4 batters faced, 2 groundouts
Branch Kloess – 1.2 IP, H, 2 BB, 3 SO, 39 pitches, 24 strikes (61.5%), 8 batters faced, 1 groundout, 1 fly out
Hector Ambriz – 1.1 IP, 22 pitches, 14 strikes (64%), 5 batters faced, 5 groundouts (Kai reached on an error)

Batters

Cesar Puello – 3-5, R, 2B (4), HR (1), 2 RBI (9)
Andrew Brown – 2-4, R, 2B(6), BB, Outfield Assist
Zach Lutz – 2-5, SB
Kai Gronauer – 1-4, R, 2B (1)
Kirk Nieuwenhuis – 1-3, 2B (5), RBI (11), BB, SO
Jace Peterson – 5 BB, SB
Jeff Francoeur – 2-3, 2 R, HR(7), RBI (19), BB (6)

Recap:

            The Las Vegas 51s made their first road trip to the brand new Southwestern University Park in El Paso to play the Chihuahua’s Thursday night. It appears to be a beautiful stadium, and the MiLB.tv coverage is relatively excellent. For the 51s, Giancarlo Alvarado was coming off the disabled list to pitch for the first time since April 22, making his first start of the season. He was ‘effectively wild’ on the night, walking six batters over five innings, but only allowing a triple and one run. Cesar Puello led off and was the star offensively for the 51s, launching a HR and double off El Paso starter Jason Lane. Lane, the former major league OF, was facing the 51s for the second time this season, and was touched up for nine hits in his five innings of work. Erik Goeddel came in to relieve Alvarado, but struggled with command and was hit hard, being tagged for 2 runs before stranding the bases loaded. Aside from Goeddel, the bullpens kept the offenses from scoring the rest of the way, with Vic Black coming in for the save in the 9th.

            Puello got the scoring started with a solo HR in the 3rd, his first HR of the season – finally! Kai Gronauer got things started in the 4th with a ground-rule double leading off the inning, his first hit of the season. Alvarado would help himself by driving Kai in with two outs later in the inning. Puello would follow with an RBI double into the RF corner to score Q from 2B and give the 51s a 3-0 lead. El Paso would get on the board in the bottom of the 4th, as Adam Moore tripled in Jeff Francoeur from 1B with nobody out. Fortunately, Alvarado was able to get two fly balls to Brown in RF before Lane grounded out to Lutz. The 51s got that run right back in the top of the 5th, with Kirk Nieuwenhuis providing the big hit on a double off the glove of 2B Peterson in shallow CF. Erik Goeddel started the 6th and gave up a 400-foot bomb to Jeff Francoeur. He was a bit wild (50% strikes), and was hit hard. He might have given up another run if not for a nice play by Andrew Brown to prevent Travis Buck from a ‘hustle double.’ Ball was lined into the right-center field gap, but Brown cut it off and threw a bullet to 2B that beat Buck by a mile. “Muno had so much time he could’ve autographed the ball,” said 51s broadcaster Russ Langer. The next batter, Tyler Greene, hit a 400-foot triple to straightaway CF. El Paso managed to get the bases loaded, but Erik Goeddel got Brooks Conrad looking at a big 3-2 hook to end the inning. Thornton looked very good in relief over his 1.2 IP, likely only getting removed because he had reached 30 pitches, as he had struck out the only two batters he faced in the 8th. Vic Black was a little wild to Jace Peterson, issuing him his 5th walk of the night to lead off the 9th. He’d recover to get two groundballs from the next two hitters, including one that went for a nifty double play. Ball was hit to Satin at the bag, who snagged it and stepped on 1B before spinning and throwing to Q at 2B. The throw to Q was low, so Q had to catch a short hop and then quickly apply the tag. It was a nice play all around.
             The best part of the night was definitely seeing Cesar Puello driving the ball well multiple times in the same game. He’s having a breakout-like week, having gone 7-13 with two doubles, a homerun, two walks, a HBP and no strikeouts since Saturday. I really hope he starts getting regular playing time at the top of the 51s lineup, he’s the most exciting position player playing in Vegas now. I had much higher hopes for his season before it started, but it’s still early enough to see some big gains with a strong week or two – Thursday’s performance alone raised his average 16 points and his slugging percentage 52 points, with his OPS up to .671 now from .606.
            I’m a little concerned about Goeddel – he was looking so good before taking that grounder off his leg 10 days ago. His control has been off in his two appearances since, throwing only 4/12 pitches for strikes in his previous appearance, and 15/30 pitches for strikes this appearance. Hopefully it is just the leg still bothering him for now and the issue doesn't linger, as he was looking like a solid bullpen option for the Mets.
            As an aside, it’s pretty cool for me to see long-time Met minor league catcher Kai Gronauer still pursuing the dream and getting some play for Vegas. I know he was never an exciting prospect, but I’ve been rooting for and casually following him for 6+ seasons now – to me he’s a Met even if he never plays for the major league team. Seems like so long ago the Mets convinced him to forego his studies in Germany and come play in America. Considering his playing time in 2013-14, it still seems a long shot he ever makes it to the show, but it would be a pretty awesome story if he did.
            Looking ahead, Thor starts Friday night at 9:05 PM ET opposite Matt Wisler. Wisler is making his 3rd start since being promoted and has not performed well in his first two chances, allowing 12 runs (11 ER) in just 6.1 IP. Thor has 31 strikeouts against 7 walks in his last 23.2 IP, spanning four starts – three of which were against the Rainiers and their PCL ranked 2nd best offense. He’s allowed 25 hits during that span, so it’d be nice to see him go out there and dominate a relative weak lineup. His last start against El Paso did not have good results, as he allowed 6 runs (4 ER) on 6 hits and 3 walks over only 4 IP – the only time he has failed to complete 5 innings all season.
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