Bradford Blows a Matzter Piece in the 9th

Las Vegas 51s @ El Paso Chihuahuas

May 10, 2015

Steven Matz @ Jason Lane

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

W: Mazzoni (1-0, 0.63 ERA); L: Bradford (0-1, 2.93 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Steven Matz (1.70 ERA) – 7 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 7 SO, 97 Pitches (66 Strikes), 10 GO: 3 FO

Zack Thornton (H, 1, 5.17 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 SO, 1 GO

Jack Leathersich (H, 2, 1.74 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 1 FO

Chase Bradford (BS, 1) – 0.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, BB, 1 GO

Batters

Wilfredo Tovar – 3-5, SB (8), SO

Eric Campbell – 1-5, SB (3), SO

Dan Rohlfing – 1-4 R, HR (1), 2 RBI (5), 2 SO

Kyle Johnson – 2-4, 2B (5), SO

Recap

            The Las Vegas 51s wasted a brilliant start from Steven Matz Sunday afternoon when El Paso jumped on closer Chase Bradford for 3 runs in the 9^th. After 14 scoreless innings to start the season, Bradford has allowed runs in consecutive appearances. Matz looked very sharp throughout the start, just toying with the lineup at times. He lost the first batter of the game after getting ahead 0-2, and then walked the leadoff batter in the 2^nd, but he’d work around both mistakes with no problems. El Paso would get a runner as far as 2B in the 4^th, 5^th and 7^th against Matz, but couldn’t do any damage. Dan Rohlfing’s two-run blast in the 4^th inning looked like it was going to be enough offense for the 51s, but then Wally overcomplicated things in the 9^th. Instead of just letting Jack Leathersich handle the entire inning, he brought him in only for the lefty, and then went to Bradford a night after got hit around. Although I tend to disagree, I can understand wanting to send a relief pitcher right back out there after a blow-up, but I don’t understand only using Leathersich for one out against the lefty – he’s always been better against righties, why limit him to the LOOGY role? Bradford was hit around for the second straight night, and El Paso would eventually score the walk-off run against him.

            This series wraps up Monday night at 8:35 PM, and the 51s will be looking for a split behind Tyler Pill.

Scoring Highlights

            After Cory Vaughn walked with two outs in the 4^th, Dan Rohlfing hit his first bomb as a member of the 51s to put Las Vegas up 2-0. Kyle Johnson followed with a double, but Steven Matz would be retired – although he did get some good contact.

Matz Coverage

K1

K2

K3

K4

K5

K6

K7

Zack Thornton

Recent galactic signal fuels the search for #DarkMatter by the Large Hadron Collider http://t.co/KEg8HbJWsI #science pic.twitter.com/9rwovqYxUL

— Scientific American (@sciam) May 10, 2015