Thor Recovers From Rough First to Finish Strong, Offense Does its Thing in 51s Win

Las Vegas 51s @ El Paso Chihuahua’s

May 16, 2014

Noah Syndergaard @ Matt Wisler

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E	LOB
Las Vegas	1	0	3	0	1	0	2	0	3		10	14	0	6
El Paso	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		2	8	1	7

MiLB.com boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Noah Syndergaard (W, 5-2) – 5 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 5 SO, 93 pitches, 56 strikes (60%), 22 batters faced, 5 groundouts, 1 fly out

Ryan Reid – 2 IP, 2 H, BB, 2 SO, 39 pitches, 27 strikes (69%), 8 batters faced, 3 groundouts

Miguel Socolovich – IP, SO, 12 pitches, 6 strikes, fly out

Jeff Walters – IP, 11 pitches, 8 strikes, 2 groundouts

Batters

Matt ∂en Dekker – 3-5, 3 R, RBI (22), 2B (9), HR (4), SO

Josh Satin – 4-5, 3 R, 2 RBI (2), 2B (1)

Andrew Brown – 2-5, R, 3 RBI (19), HR (7), SO

Zach Lutz – 2-4, BB, 3B (2), SO

Jonathon Galvez – 2-4, SO, SB (1)

Play By Play

Recap:

            The Las Vegas 51s won their 5^th straight game Friday night, taking game two of the series behind top prospect Noah Syndergaard, who recovered nicely after a rough first inning – check out the play-by-play for notes on his pitch sequences. Ryan Reid, Miguel Socolovich and Jeff Walters would combine for the final four scoreless innings, only allowing two hits and a walk, both attributable to Reid over his two innings of work. El Paso starter Matt Wisler was aided by two of the four Las Vegas double plays in the first two innings, but surrendered three runs on five hits in the third – the key hit being a Josh Satin two run double with one out. As is often the case, the 51s continued to score throughout the game, capped off by an Andrew Brown bomb of Jeff Francoeur in the 9^th – the fifth time he’s pitched in 2014, third time against the 51s. Xorge Carrillo landed in El Paso and made his 51s debut by catching the 9^th inning.

 

            Matt ∂en Dekker got the scoring started on the second pitch of the night, lining a fastball over the CF wall for a solo HR. The Chihuahua’s answered back in the bottom of the 1^st, combining three hits and a walk for the only two runs they would score. It was a rough inning for Syndergaard, who threw 31 pitches in the frame (18 strikes), and gave up some hard hit balls. ∂en Dekker proved to be Matt Wisler’s biggest problem on the day in the 5^th, when he led off with a double down the 3B line and later scored. The 51s scored two runs despite only one hit in the 7^th thanks to a couple of walks, a Brooks Conrad error that allowed Satin to score and then a wild pitch that allowed pinch runner Kirk Nieuwenhuis to score. El Paso had someone reach base in every inning except the 9^th, they just couldn’t get anything else going after what appeared to be a promising night after the 1^st inning, hitting into two double plays of their own.

As I mentioned, Thor looked much better after the 1^st inning, only allowing three hits, with three strikeouts and just 62 pitches needed for the last four frames (38 strikes). The gun at the stadium had his fastball sitting 92-94 MPH from what Langer was reporting, which he threw about 2/3 of the time. He threw 22 curveballs on the night by my count (couldn’t tell from angle and never told on a few) – the few curves I saw from the OF camera appeared tighter than I remember his curves looking the last time he pitched away from Vegas. He only threw seven change-ups by my count – missing with five, getting a foul on one, and getting a groundout to 1B on another. Always rather see him just dominate, but it was a good sign to see him figure out what was working and finish strong over the last four innings – isn’t that what ‘they’ say the best pitchers do?

It was nice to see Reid, Socolovich and Walters come in and do their thing relatively quickly. Walters especially, as he’s had his struggles at time while losing the closers job for the 51s already this season. Reid was arguably most impressive though, jamming three hitters and striking out two.

Looking ahead, the 51s are scheduled to send Dana Eveland opposite Juan Pablo Oramas Saturday night at 9:05 PM ET in El Paso. Eveland is coming off five scoreless innings against Tacoma in his last start, the second time he’s accomplished that so far since being moved to the starters role – he’s alternated effective outings with 4 ER performances in his five starts since being moved to the rotation. Oramas has been pretty consistently effective this season for El Paso – 3 ER or less in all but one start, with a strikeout per inning – but has walked 18 batters in 37.2 IP. He’s coming off his best start of the season against Albuquerque this past Sunday, when he pitched 6.1 scoreless innings, only allowing two hits and three walks while striking out five.