Bowman's Struggles Against Lefties Continues, 51s Lose Big

Colorado Springs Sky Sox @ Las Vegas 51s

May 28, 2015

Taylor Jungmann @ Matthew Bowman

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Colorado	2	0	2	0	0	1	0	3	0		8	13	0
Las Vegas	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0		3	4	1

W: Jungmann (2-2, 6.49 ERA); L: Bowman (2-6, 6.85 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Matt Bowman – 6 IP, 7 H, 5 R (4 ER), BB, 3 SO, 2 HR, 85 Pitches (58 Strikes), 10 GO: 2 FO, (1-2)

Scott Rice (1.29 ERA) – 1 IP, H, SO, 1 FO

John Church (3.81 ERA) – 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, HR, 3 GO

Jon Velasquez (3.18 ERA) – 1 IP, H, 2 GO

Batters

Alex Castellanos – 2-4, 2 R, 2B (14), HR (10), 2 RBI (33), 2 SO

Travis Taijeron – 1-3, 2B (4), RBI (21), SO

Recap

            51s starter Matt Bowman came in with a 1.172 OPS allowed to left handed batters so far this year, so the Sky Sox stacked their lineup with 6 lefties, and the strategy paid off with an easy 8-3 win for Colorado Springs. Of the 7 hits Bowman allowed, 6 of them were to lefties, including 2 doubles and 2 homeruns. The 51s bats never really got it going, although Alex Castellanos had another big night, driving both rallies. The 51s pulled to within two in the bottom of the 7^th, but John Church allowed a 3-spot in the top of the 8^th – the Sky Sox hit for the cycle against him in the frame – and the subsequent 8-3 deficit was too big to overcome.

            This Sky Sox lineup would be tough for most pitchers, as 6 batters have a .291+ batting average, and the 8-hitter finished the night at .273, but all the lefties made it a real test for Bowman. He held righties to just 1 single in 8 at bats, but lefties managed a 1.287 OPS against him for the night. Bowman got groundballs from the first two batters of the game, but Logan Schafer reached on an error from Brooks Conrad. Shane Peterson followed with his first bomb of the year, a blast to center field. He’d allow a single to each lefty faced in the 2^nd, but got a double play grounder from righty Yadiel Rivera, and ended the frame with a strikeout of the pitcher. The top of the lineup attacked Bowman for two more runs in the 3^rd, sandwiching a walk with two doubles – he worked around Peterson, but then grooved one to Matt Clark, which he one hopped of the ‘COX’ sign in left center. Bowman would settle in to retire 10 of the final 11 batters he faced, including a perfect 4^th and 5^th, but the one hit he allowed was a solo blast to Clark.

            Alex Castellanos cut the 51s deficit in half when he hit a two run bomb with two outs in the 4^th, and his leadoff double in the 7^th led to another run, but those were half of the teams hits Thursday night, so they were lucky to score 3 runs. Matt Reynolds was a big culprit, striking out 3 times in his 4 at bats, extending his slump another day, and dropping his average to .277. The 51s have been at home for much of his slump this month, so I’ll be paying close attention to his AB’s (with the better MiLB.tv coverage) this weekend in Nashville. The top 4 batters in the lineup went 0-15 with a walk, which pretty much sums up the night for Las Vegas.

            There was a weird moment when Scott Rice came in to pitch for the 7^th inning. He allowed a one out single, but then picked the runner off before throwing a pitch to leadoff batter Scooter Gennett. After turning his attention back to Gennett, now with two outs, Rice fell behind Scooter 2-0 – the first pitch bounced in near Scooter’s feet, and the next pitch sailed in behind him. Considering the location of those two pitches, the Sky Sox bench, and especially their manager, was upset that no warning was given, and some of them started coming on the field, which led to some players on the 51s bench to come on the field. Nothing came of it physically, but the Sky Sox manager was still royally peeved, and he’d yell until he got ejected.
            Las Vegas heads to Nashville this weekend for 4 against the Sounds. Darin Gorski is scheduled to take the mound for the 51s Friday night at 8:05 PM.

New Very Large Telescope image: A bubbly cosmic celebration, http://t.co/HDAwooOB7q pic.twitter.com/G1EZWrd66I

— Astronomy Magazine (@AstronomyMag) May 28, 2015