51s Lose PCL Classic in Home Opener

Fresno Grizzlies @ Las Vegas 51s

April 17, 2015

Alex White @ Tyler Pill

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Fresno	1	5	2	0	0	0	3	0	0		11	12	1
Las Vegas	0	1	1	0	1	6	0	1	0		10	18	3

W: Jankowski (1-0, 1.93 ERA); L: Duane Below (0-1, 4.15 ERA); S: Hoyt (3)

MiLB.com Boxscore

Back to ye ol' faithful crappy camera angle, sigh

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Chase Bradford (0.00 ERA) – 1.1 IP, BB, SO, 3 GO

Jack Leathersich (0.00 ERA) – 0.1 IP

Batters

Dilson Herrera – 2-6, 2 R, SO

Matt Reynolds – 2-5, 2 R, 2B (3), 3 RBI (9), SF, SO

Alex Castellanos – 3-4, 3 R, 2B (3), HR (3), 2 RBI (10)

Johnny Monell – 3-5, R, HR (1), 2 RBI (3), SO

Kevin Plawecki – 3-5, RBI (1)

Brandon Allen – 3-4, R, RBI (4), BB

Travis Taijeron – 1-4, BB, 2 SO

Wilfredo Tovar – 1-5, R, 2B (1), RBI (1)

Recap:

            The 51s came out on the wrong side of what turned into a classic PCL battle on opening night in Las Vegas. Starter Tyler Pill struggled throughout his 1.2 IP, allowing 6 runs on 6 hits, 3 of which went for extra bases – a 2B, 3B, and 2R-HR that knocked him out of the game. The 51s bounced back for a run in the bottom of the 2^nd, collecting three straight singles from Alex Castellanos, Johnny Monell and Kevin Plawecki to start the frame – this would not be the only time through the order they each had hits.

Unfortunately, the Grizzlies jumped on John Church for two more in the top of the 3^rd. Church allowed the first three batters to reach on a single, walk and infield single, which loaded the bases. After striking out Max Stassi, Church got a weak groundout that wasn’t hit hard enough for a double play, which allowed the first run to cross. Before Church could retire the next batter, he’d uncork a wild pitch that brought home the 2^nd run of the inning. But again, the 51s battled right back to scratch together a run in the bottom of the 3^rd. Dilson Herrera created this run the way with his legs: he took an extra base on his single to CF when the ball bounced away from Andrew Alpin, then tagged up and went to 3B on a medium-depth liner to RF, before tagging up and scoring on another fly ball to RF.

Duane Below came in to start the 4^th – his first appearance with Las Vegas after staying behind in extended Spring Training to get stretched out – and struck out the side around some two out hits. Below would keep things scoreless while looking solid through his first 3 innings, but imploded after being given a lead heading to the 7^th. The 51s scratched another run off in the 5^th, when Matt Reynolds hit a 2-out single, and then Monell brought him home two batters later. But the 51s really broke out in the 6^th inning, taking their first lead of the game while sending 11 batters to the plate – Brandon Allen went 2-2 in the inning. The first two batters of the inning reached, and then Wilfredo Tovar hit a ground-rule double to bring home Brandon Allen from 1B. After the next two batters made outs, the 51s went double, homer, homer to take a 9-8 lead – it was very exciting and had Cashman Stadium going nuts. That’s where things stood when Below went back out for the 7^th, which quickly unraveled for him. The inning started with a rare occurrence when Wilfredo Tovar committing a fielder error – surprisingly, this would happen again in the 8^th. The next two batters would go deep off of Below, giving the Grizzlies a less than comfortable two-run lead.

The 51s bats were not done yet though, as Castellanos, Plawecki and Allen each added their 3^rd hit in the 8^th to scratch together a run, and put runners on the corners with one outs. But Travis Taijeron and Tovar could not get Plawecki home, and the 51s went down 1-2-3 in the 9^th. Noah Syndergaard takes the mound for his 2^nd start of 2015 Saturday night at 10, as the 51s try to even this 4-game set with the very tough Fresno Grizzlies.

In the clouds of Jupiter, scientists identify missing wave near its equator: http://t.co/um2tdrnqVg @NASAGoddard pic.twitter.com/A1gG1hPz1u
— NASA (@NASA) April 17, 2015