El Paso Chihuahuas @ Las Vegas 51s
September 3, 2015
Daniel McCutchen @ Seth Lugo
Teams
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
R
|
H
|
E
|
|
El
Paso
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0
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
0
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0
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10
|
13
|
2
|
|
Las
Vegas
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0
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0
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0
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1
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0
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0
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0
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0
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0
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1
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5
|
1
|
W: McCutchen (9-8,
3.60 ERA); L: Lugo (2-2, 4.00 ERA)
The Highlights:
Pitchers
Seth Lugo (L,
2-2, 4.00 ERA) – 4 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 3 SO, 2 HR, HBP, 71 Pitches (44
Strikes), 3 GO: 3 FO
Matthew Bowman (5.64 ERA) – 1.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 2 SO, HR, 29
Pitches (23 Strikes), 2 GO
Chase Huchingson (2.45 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 1 GO, 3 IR – 0 S
Zack Thornton (4.10 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 FO, 2 IR – 2
S
Alex Torres (1.50 ERA) – 0.1 IP, BB, 1 GO: 1 FO, 3 IR – 2 S
Cody Satterwhite (4.57 ERA) – 0.2 IP, SO, 3 IR – 0 S
Vic Black (7.30 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 SO
Chase Bradford (4.33 ERA) – 1 IP, HBP, 1 GO: 1 FO
Daniel McCutchen – 7 Ip, 4 H, R, 4 BB, 2 SO,
HR, 100 Pitches (58 Strikes), 11 GO: 3 FO
Tayron Guerrero (4.63 ERA) – 1 IP, H, BB, SO,
1 GO
Aaron Northcraft (6.11 ERA) – 1 IP, BB, 1 GO:
1 FO
Batters
Josh Rodriguez – 1-3, 2 BB
Travis Taijeron – 2-3, BB, SO
Matt Reynolds – 1-3, 2B (30), BB, SO
Brandon Nimmo – 1-2, R, HR (2), RBI (6), 2 BB
Hunter Renfroe – 1-5,
2 RBI (17), 3 SO
Jake Goebbert – 3-4, 3
R, HR (10), RBI (62), BB, SO
Hector Gomez – 1-5, R,
2 SO
Rymer Liriano – 3-5, 3
R, HR (14), RBI (62)
Will Middlebrooks –
3-5, 2 R, HR (4), 3 RBI (19), SO
Jason Hagert – 1-2, R,
RBI (18), 2 BB, HBP
Recap
The
Las Vegas 51s came into the season favorites to repeat as division champions in
the Pacific Southern division of the PCL, but after spending nearly the entire
season in 1st place, their loss to El Paso Thursday night dropped
them a half game back of those pesky little dogs with one series left. El Paso
has an extra game to play this weekend, but they have the head-to-head
advantage, and they have a one game lead on Las Vegas in the loss column. This
was a tightly played game for the first 4 innings, but then Wally started
getting weird with his bullpen, and the game seemed to snowball out of control.
You can’t blame Wally for his relievers not performing, but his bullpen
management was poor throughout the series, and it left him without his ‘hottest
reliever’ John Church in the biggest game of the season.
Seth
Lugo wasn’t as effective as he’d been in his previous two starts for Las Vegas,
but he was still pretty good. Two long balls allowed would burn Lugo, and he’d
depart down 3-1 after 4 innings. Rymer Liriano continued his season long
assault on Las Vegas pitching with a solo blast leading off the 2nd
inning. Liriano has gone 18-55 with 2 doubles, 5 homeruns, 15 runs scored and 9
RBI’s against Las Vegas this year. Lugo would allow a second homerun to Will
Middlebrooks with two outs in the 4th inning, which turned out to be
a huge moment in this game, because that essentially ended Lugo’s night in
Wally’s eyes.
Before
the game got out of hand, Brandon Nimmo would bring the 51s to within 3-1 by
launching a 400+ foot homerun to right center field. Then Matt Bowman took over
for the 5th inning, and I started having flashes of his only other
relief appearance with Las Vegas: 0.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R on 8/31/2014. Bringing
Bowman into this game might be the most confusing part of the night. I can only
imagine it was a planned relief appearance – perhaps they wanted to piggyback
Lugo and Bowman – but any of the 6 relievers who came in after Bowman would’ve
been a better choice in this must-win game. Bowman has not had a good season,
and lefties have killed him since his first start of the year – LHB have a .934
OPS against Bowman, with 17 doubles and 14 homeruns in 309 PA (.221 ISO). If
the 51s really were set on Bowman pitching from the bullpen, they could’ve at
least used him appropriately as a ROOGY.
Bowman would retire the first two
batters in the 5th, but then he left the first pitch to lefty Jake
Goebbert up, and Goebbert punished it for a solo blast to right center field.
Then in the 6th inning, the only out Bowman would get came on a
strikeout of El Paso pitcher Daniel McCutchen. Wally then came out to get him
with the bases loaded and a lefty due up. Chase Huchingson would retire the
lefty on an RBI groundout to Matt Reynolds, and then Wally went to Zack
Thornton. Thornton would allow a two run single to Hunter Renfroe before
finally finishing the frame, with the 51s now down 7-1.
Thornton was brought back out for
the 7th and would allow 4 straight singles leading off the 7th
inning, forcing Wally to bring in Alex Torres. Torres would issue a walk to the
first El Paso batter he saw, forcing in the ninth Chihuahuas run of the game.
Torres would finally record an out in the frame two batters later, but Wally
had to go to the pen again to finish the frame. This time Cody Satterwhite came
in, and Satterwhite actually did his job. Satterwhite has also been one of the
hotter Las Vegas relievers, and he’s been used for multiple inning relief
appearances more than anyone else in the 51s pen, so it’s odd to me that he
wasn’t brought back out for the 8th. Vic Black would come in and
work the first 1-2-3 frame against El Paso since the 3rd inning.
Chase Bradford kept El Paso scoreless in the 9th, but the Las Vegas
offense never put up a fight.
For the game, Las Vegas had just
one runner reach 3B, and two others reach 2B, which is never going to be a
recipe for success. This Las Vegas lineup is nowhere near as stacked as it has
been this year, especially in those late August games, but they still had more
than enough good offensive players to put up a better fight than they did. Considering
they are one of the top offensive teams in the PCL (2nd with a .790
OPS), this Las Vegas team has gone through some serious scoring droughts this
year, and they hit one at the worst time possible.
With the playoffs on the line, Las
Vegas welcomes Tacoma in for the final series of the year. They can’t afford to
lose any games, because even if they sweep, El Paso can still go 4-1 to reach
the playoffs. Dillon Gee (7-3, 4.87 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Las Vegas
tonight opposite Adrian Sampson (2-3, 6.82 ERA).
Pitcher Coverage
Table 1 – Lugo pitch stats by inning
1st
|
2nd
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3rd
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4th
|
Total
|
|
Total
|
16
|
9
|
16
|
30
|
71
|
Strikes
|
11
|
7
|
11
|
15
|
44
|
Swinging*
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
*7% Swinging strike rate
The evolution of stars can be changed dramatically if they're in a close binary system. More: http://t.co/w2NufQEWhz pic.twitter.com/eYg7YBrcIq
— Chandra Observatory (@chandraxray) September 4, 2015
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