Two-Man Show Of Bowman And Conrad Lead 51s Over Fresno

Fresno Grizzlies @ Las Vegas 51s

July 21, 2015

Brady Rodgers @ Matthew Bowman

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

W: Bowman (W, 7-10, 5.05 ERA); L: Rodgers (8-5, 4.26 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

Another beautiful night for baseball in Las Vegas

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Matt Bowman (W, 7-10, 5.05 ERA) – 9 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 6 SO, 114 Pitches (76 Strikes), 16 GO: 2 FO

Batters

Zach Lutz – 2-4, R

Brandon Allen – 1-3, R, RBI (49), SF, SO

Brooks Conrad – 4-4, R, 2 2B (12), 3B (1), HR (6), 2 RBI (37)

Wilfredo Tovar – 3-4

Recap

            It was a two-man show for the 51s Tuesday night, with Matt Bowman throwing a 2-hitter on the mound, and Brooks Conrad’s 4 hits going for 11 total bases. Bowman got off to a poor start this season, with this Fresno team tagging him for 13 ER over 8.2 IP across 2 of his first 3 starts, so it was great to see him not just having success against the Grizzlies, but absolutely shutting them down – admittedly, Tuesday’s lineup wasn’t as dangerous as the Grizzlies April lineups. At the plate, Brooks Conrad was the 51s offense, hitting a homerun, two wall balls (one for a double, the other for a triple), and then going for the double in the 8^th when a single would’ve given him a cycle – he’d make the last out in the frame trying to score from 2B on a single, but wouldn’t have even been in scoring position if he had stuck to the single in his AB.

            Bowman had good control of his arsenal throughout the start, which led to a lot of weak contact early in the AB at the start of the game, and then a lot of swinging strikes as he got rolling – see Table 1 below for an inning-by-inning pitch breakdown. Although Wilfredo Tovar committed a throwing error behind Bowman in the 1^st inning, his defense was more helpful than not, turning three inning-ending double plays behind him. Bowman was so good that Fresno only got a runner to 2B in two innings, and in both situations the Grizzlies already had two outs in the frame. He faced 3 over the minimum in Las Vegas while facing the league’s 5^th best offense (Fresno came in with a team OPS of .764), which is just an amazing start.

            Aside from Brooks Conrad, the 51s offense could get nothing going against Fresno starter Brady Rodgers. It would be hard to have a night better than Brooks Conrad did Tuesday night, as he smoked the ball for an extra base hit in each of his 4 PA’, although he might’ve had a better night if the walls at Cashman Field weren’t so high. He put the 51s on the board with a solo blast in the 4^th, he tripled home Brandon Allen in the 6^th inning, and he doubled Zach Lutz to 3B in the 8^th (Lutz would come home on a sac fly from Cory Vaughn).

            This series continues Wednesday night at 10:05 PM, with Darin Gorski (8-6, 4.65 ERA) scheduled to pitch for Las Vegas. Gorski is looking to continue his recent stretch of great pitching: 1.82 ERA over his last 5 appearances (4 starts – 24.2 IP), with 18 hits (2 HR) and 10 walks allowed against 21 strikeouts for a .602 OPS against.

Bowman Coverage

Table 1 – Bowman pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Total
Total	10	15	11	12	10	21	10	7	18	114
Strikes	8	10	7	8	7	11	6	6	13	76
Swinging*	1	0	0	1	0	4	1	1	5	13

*11.4% Swinging strike rate

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— Sky & Telescope (@SkyandTelescope) July 20, 2015