51s Hold On After A Great Start From Seth Lugo

Las Vegas 51s @ New Orleans Zephyrs

August 23, 2015

Seth Lugo @ Trevor Williams

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

W: Lugo (2-0, 3.06 ERA); L: Williams (0-1, 9.00 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

*Seth Lugo – 6.2 IP, 5 H, R, 12 SO, HBP, 85 Pitches (59 Strikes), 2 GO: 3 FO*

Cody Satterwhite (H, 8, 4.64 ERA) – 0.1 IP, SO, 3 GO: 3 FO, 2 IR – 0 S

Vic Black (8.02 ERA) – 0.2 IP, H, BB, 2 FO

Scott Rice (H, 8, 1.80 ERA) – 0.1 IP, SO, 2 IR – 0 S

Chase Bradford (4.34 ERA) – 1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 2 GO

Trevor Williams – 3 IP, 6 H, 4 R (3 ER), BB, 5 SO, HBP, 79 Pitches (47 Strikes), 1 GO: 3 FO

Blake Logan (5.01 ERA) – 4 IP, H, R, BB, 5 SO, HR, 2 GO: 3 FO

Jorge De Leon (7.84 ERA) – 2 IP, 2 BB, 4 GO: 1 FO

Batters

Darrell Ceciliani – 1-4, 2B (16), RBI (33), SO

Eric Campbell – 1-5, 2 R, HR (5), RBI (17)

Kirk Nieuwenhuis – 2-5, R, 2 SO

Matt Reynolds – 1-4, R, 2B (27), RBI (59), GIDP

Eric Young – 1-4, 2B (1), SO

Seth Lugo – 1-3, R, 2B (1), SO

Donovan Solano – 2-5, RBI (5), SO

Reid Brignac – 1-4, 2B (17), 2 RBI (30), BB, 2 SO

Tomas Telis – 2-4, BB, SO

Juan Diaz – 1-4, R, 3 SO

Zack Cox – 1-4, R, 2B (1), RBI (1)

Austin Wates – 1-3, R, HBP, 2 SO

Recap

            Las Vegas jumped ahead big early, and then barely held on for the win in the 9^th, as they took game one in New Orleans. 51s starter Seth Lugo set a new career high with 12 strikeouts, becoming just the fourth PCL pitcher to reach that mark this season (Steven Matz is one of the other 3), and shut the Zephyrs down over the first 6 innings. He was finally touched up for a run in the 7^th, but Cody Satterwhite bailed him out of a tough spot to hold a 5-1 lead. It looked like that would be more than enough as Chase Bradford took the mound in the 9^th, but 3 singles and 2 walks (one intentional) later, the Zephyrs had made it a 5-4 game, and had the bases loaded with just one out. After falling behind 2-1, Bradford induced a grounder to Eric Campbell, and he’d throw it home to start a game ending 5-2-3 double play.

            Check out the scoring details and highlights below, as well as nice defensive plays from the 51s. This series continues Monday night at 7:00 PM, with Matthew Bowman (7-14, 5.31 ERA) scheduled to pitch for Las Vegas.

Scoring Highlights

            Eric Campbell reached on an error with two outs in the 1^st inning, and the 51s were able to take advantage with the first run of the game. Kirk Nieuwenhuis would follow with a single to RF, which advanced Campbell to 3B, and then Johnny Monell was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Brandon Allen. Allen would work out a walk to force home a run, but the 51s would leave the bases loaded in the frame.

            The 51s doubled their lead in the 2^nd with a pair of doubles from Seth Lugo and Darrell Ceciliani.

            They would double their lead again in the 3^rd inning, with a leadoff single from Kirk, followed by a pair of RBI doubles from Matt Reynolds and Eric Young Jr. later in the frame.

            Eric Campbell capped the 51s scoring with a solo blast in the 4^th.

            New Orleans finally broke through for a run in the 7^th, when Zack Cox hit an RBI double to RF with two outs in the frame.

            The Zephyrs headed to the bottom of the 9^th inning trailing 5-1, but they’d make things interesting before Chase Bradford could wrap this game up. Isaac Galloway led off with a single to RF, although he’d be replaced on the base paths after a force out. The Zephyrs would soon load the bases with just one out, and then Donovan Solano and Reid Brignac combined for consecutive RBI hits. Solano reached on an infield single to Campbell, and even though he couldn’t record an out, Soup preventing the ball from reaching the OF (he made a diving stop) likely prevented further advancement from the runners, including the possible advancement of Solano to 2B. This would prove huge when Reid Brignac followed with a two run double to CF, as Solano had to hold up at 3B. New Orleans was still in a great position to tie, or even win, this game, and then Las Vegas intentionally walked Tomas Telis to re-load the bases and put a force on every base. That decision paid off, as the next batter hit an easy grounder to Campbell, which started a game-ending 5-2-3 double play.

Defensive Highlights

            Eric Young Jr. was tested in LF early, and he used his speed to make up ground for a nice over the shoulder catch near the warning track.

            This was described as a ‘sharp pop out’ by gameday, which sounds weird to me, but Dilson Herrera made a nice play on this one.

            The camera was fooled by where this foul ball was going, but Johnny Monell was not, and he ended up making a great sliding catch.

            Darrell Ceciliani made a nice catch on the run before diving forward in the 8^th.

            All 3 outs in the 9^th inning were exciting: Dilson made a nice jump-and-spin throw to 2B, although they wouldn’t be able to turn the double play; that allowed them to end the game with an unconventional 5-2-3 double play started by Eric Campbell.

Seth Lugo Coverage

Table 1 – Pitch stats by inning

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	Total
Total	8	12	16	13	9	13	14	85
Strikes	7	9	11	9	7	7	9	59
Swinging*	1	1	3	3	1	1	1	11

*12.9% Swinging strike rate

First strikeout came on a 1-2 fastball right down the middle (looking).

Second strikeout came on a 0-2 breaking ball, down and in (swinging).

Third strikeout came on a 0-2 pitch (swinging).

Fourth strikeout came on a 1-2 fastball (looking).

Fifth strikeout came on a 2-2 pitch (swinging).

Sixth strikeout came on a 2-2 fastball (swinging).

Seventh strikeout came on a 1-2 pitch (swinging).

Eighth strikeout came on a 0-2 curveball that bounced (swinging).

Ninth strikeout came on a 1-2 breaking ball (looking).

Tenth strikeout came on a 3-2 pitch (swinging).

Eleventh strikeout came on a 0-2 fastball at the letters (swinging).

Twelfth strikeout came on a 1-2 breaking ball on the inside corner (looking).

.@uw_icecube detection of elusive particle could open new era in #astronomy: http://t.co/dwYdLR2Lxi pic.twitter.com/OIH8mzbuwF

— National Science Fdn (@NSF) August 21, 2015