Syndergaard not Sharp but 51s Bats Mash Out a Win in Sacramento

Las Vegas 51s @ Sacramento River Cats

April 13, 2015

Noah Syndergaard @ Nik Turley

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Las Vegas	0	0	2	2	3	0	0	1	0		8	14	1
Sacramento	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	0		5	12	1

W: Thornton (1-0, 1.93 ERA); L: Turley (0-1, 13.50 ERA); S: Satterwhite (2, 9.00 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Noah Syndergaard (4.50 ERA) – 4 IP, 7 H, 3 R (2 ER), BB, 2 SO, 54 Pitches (37 Strikes), 6 GO: 2 FO

John Church (5.40 ERA) – 2 IP, 3 H, R, 2 BB, SO, 3 GO: 1 FO

Zach Thornton – 2 IP, 2 H, R, SO, HR, 3 GO: 1 FO

Cody Satterwhite – 1 IP, 2 SO, 1 GO

Batters

Dilson Herrera – 1-4, R, RBI (2), BB, SO, CS

Matt Reynolds – 2-4, 2 R, 3B (1), RBI (2), BB, SO

Eric Campbell – 3-5, R, HR (2), 3 RBI (6)

Alex Castellanos – 1-4, R, BB

Cory Vaughn – 1-5

Travis Taijeron – 2-3, R, HR (1), 2 RBI, SF

Kyle Johnson – 3-4, R

Darrell Ceciliani – 1-1, R, 2B (1)

Recap:

            The Las Vegas 51s won their 3^rd straight Monday night in the opener of a four game set against Sacramento. The big story of the game was Noah Syndergaard making his first start of 2015, especially since news of his forearm tightness during Spring Training came out over the past few days. Syndergaard was not at full strength in this one, as his fastball was mostly sitting in the 94 MPH range, and the announcers did not mention a reading above 95 MPH – normally you don’t hear any readings below 95 MPH. He only had 60 pitches to work with, so Wally took him out after 4 innings and 54 pitches. It’s hard to make anything out of 50 pitches as a pitcher comes back from time off to rest an injury, but Thor was not very sharp Monday night, and was still too reliant on his fastball – he might have been planning to throw fewer breaking pitches considering his forearm tightness. He went through similar struggles and declines in performance around his 2014 DL stint, so hopefully that’s all this is – I’ll take the front office’s word that the MRI’s revealed little risk at this point, as Thor is too valuable to risk.

            Back to the game, the 51s bats broke out in a big way, with four players providing multiple hits, including 3 apiece for Eric Campbell and Kyle Johnson. They really beat up on Turley during their 2^nd time through the order, scoring 7 runs between the 3^rd and 5^th innings. John Church was the first reliever out of the pen for Las Vegas, and he ran into trouble in both innings, but only allowed the one run in the 5^th. Thornton came in for the next two innings and would allow a solo homer in the 8^th that would give Cody Satterwhite a save opportunity. Satterwhite picked up two strikeouts on the way to earning his 2^nd save of the season, and this save went much smoother than during Sunday’s game.

Scoring Highlights

            After Dilson Herrera led off 3^rd with a walk, Matt Reynolds tripled him home on this fly ball to RF – Reynolds would come home on an Eric Campbell groundout.

            Travis Taijeron hit this long homerun with one-out in the 4^th.

            Kyle Johnson followed with his 2^nd hit of the night – his first multi-hit game with Las Vegas.

            Syndergaard would bunt Johnson over to 2B, and then Kyle scored on this Dilson single.

            After a Matt Reynolds walk to lead off the 5^th, Soup gave the 51s a 6-3 lead with this long homerun to LF.

            Turley would then walk Alex Castellanos, his last batter of the night. Plawecki struck out against the new pitcher, but Castellanos advanced to 2B on a passed ball. Vaughn followed with a single that just squeaked under the shortstops glove to put runners on the corner for Taijeron. Taijeron drove the ball just shy of the right-center field-warning track for a sac fly to make it 7-3 Las Vegas. Kyle Johnson would add a bunt single, but Daniel Muno struck out to end the inning while pinch-hitting for Thor.

            Darrell Ceciliani hit this one out double to CF in the 8^th inning, and ended up on 3B when the center fielder bobbled the ball. He would score later in the inning on a wild pitch.

Thor Coverage

Satterwhite Coverage

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