Matz Strong, Black is BACK, 51s Beat the Bees in the 10th

Las Vegas 51s @ Salt Lake Bees

June 23, 2015

Steven Matz @ Tyler DeLoach

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		R	H	E
Las Vegas	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1		4	8	1
Salt Lake	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0		3	6	1

W: Thornton (4-2, 4.78 ERA): L: McBryde (2-4, 4.96 ERA); Saves: Bradford (7)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Steven Matz (2.19 ERA) – 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 8 SO, HR, 83 Pitches (58 Strikes), 4 GO: 1 FO

Duane Below (2.19 ERA) – 2 IP, 3 SO, 2 GO

Vic Black (10.80 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 SO, 1 GO

Scott Rice (2.75 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 1 FO

Zack Thornton – 0.2 IP, 1 GO: 1 FO

Chase Bradford – 1 IP, H, SO, 1 GO: 1 FO

Batters

Wilfredo Tovar – 2-5, 2 RBI (27)

T.J. Rivera – 2-5, RBI (11), SO

Alex Castellanos – 1-4, BB

Kirk Nieuwenhuis – 1-3, R, SO

Travis Taijeron – 2-3, R, 2B (9), SO

Recap

            In what might have been the final AAA start of his career, Steven Matz allowed a two out run in 3 innings Tuesday, but the 51s overcame an early deficit to win in extras. Still working with a limited pitch count in the minors, Matz would be limited to 5 innings and 83 pitches, but the 51s bullpen was on point. Duane Below and Vic Black made their first appearances off their most recent DL stints, and both were in top form. Kirk Nieuwenhuis was ejected after he struck out swinging in the 8^th, which led to Wally Backman’s eventual ejection, his second on this road trip. After the Mets took the lead in extras, Chase Bradford came in and shut things down for his 7^th save in the 10^th.

            Matz quickly retired the first 5 Bees batters of the game, but then Jeff Bandy lined a 2-2 fastball out to right-center field for a 1-0 lead. He struck out the next 3 batters, but then Gary Brown lofted a single into CF, and a Ryan Jackson double took a weird bounce off the side-wall and away from Taijeron, which allowed Brown to score from 1B. Matz finished the frame with his 5^th strikeout of the game. After the double, he retired 6 in a row (3 strikeouts, 2 groundouts, 1 pop out) before Kaleb Cowart reached on an infield single/E1 in the 5^th – the ball was a dribbler up the line, Matz fielded it, spun, but then spiked his throw to 1B, and so the inexperienced Conrad had little chance at it (it would’ve been tough for any first baseman to pick). Brown followed with an RBI double to tie the game before Matz ended his night with another strikeout. He was mostly in the 93-95 MPH range with his fastball, per Langer, but he apparently hit 99 MPH on the stadium scoreboard once.

            Duane Below came in, struck out 3, and induced two groundouts and a pop out to Rohlfing in foul territory – yeah, he’s back. He wasn’t getting many strikeouts as a starter, but he was very effective, and has been more strikeout prone in relief. He should be able to help the Mets in a middle relief role if they wanted to exchange a lefty for him. The more exciting news came in the 8^th, when Vic Black came in and lit up the scoreboard gun at 98-100 MPH throughout the frame. He’d need just 13 pitches to retire the side on two strikeouts and a soft comebacker, with 3 swinging strikes induced during the frame.

            Check out the scoring details and highlights below. This series continues Wednesday night at 9:05 PM, with Tyler Pill scheduled to pitch for Las Vegas.

Scoring Highlights

            Travis Taijeron continued his hot season with a double into the LF corner in the 2^nd.

            Kirk Nieuwenhuis sparked the 3-run rally in the 4^th inning for Las Vegas with a leadoff single. With two outs, Travis Taijeron would be hit by a pitch, and then Dan Rohlfing walked to load the bases. Wilfredo Tovar would come through with a big two run single, and then T.J. Rivera singled home Rohlfing to give Las Vegas their first lead.

            In the 10^th, Reynolds drew a two out walk and then scored when the Bees third baseman threw the ball away while trying to record the final out of the frame at 1B.

Bonus

Matt Reynolds going full extension to make a nice catch.



Matt Reynolds making the throw on the run.

Pitcher Coverage

Steven Matz

Table 1 – Matz pitch stats by inning, from watching (gameday had some mistakes)

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Total
Total	12	16	22	12	21	83
Strikes	7	12	16	8	16	59
Swinging*	3	1	5	1	2	12

*14.5% swinging strike rate

1^st inning

Ryan Jackson struck out swinging

Marc Krauss couldn’t catch up to this pitch.

2^nd inning

Jeff Bandy ended up with a solo blast off of Matz, but the AB started off in Matz’s favor

Alex Yarbrough took a called strike 3 to end the frame.

3^rd inning

Matz started the frame with two straight strikeouts:

Roger Kieschnick looking.

Kaleb Cowart swinging

One pitch before a Gary Brown singled led to a two out run, he swung through this from Matz.

Matz would finish the inning with another strikeout of Krauss.

4^th inning

He sandwiched this strikeout of Grant Green with two groundball outs to Reynolds.

5^th inning

Yarbrough went down swinging this time.

Ryan Jackson went down swinging to end the 5^th, and the night for Matz.

Vic Black

8^th inning

Struck out Cowart and Brown to start the 8^th.

X-ray echoes pinpoints neutron star on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy: http://t.co/uN7RyO8a5D @chandraxray pic.twitter.com/sN2LNahzmO

— NASA (@NASA) June 23, 2015