51s Lead Takes A Wrong Turn Against Albuqueque

Albuquerque Isotopes @ Las Vegas 51s

April 23, 2016

Nick Hundley @ Stolmy Pimentel

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Albuquerque	0	1	0	0	0	3	0	1	0		5	8	0
Las Vegas	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0		4	11	1

W: Gonzalez (1-2, 8.59 ERA); L: Smoker (0-1, 5.40 ERA); S: Castro (2)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Stolmy Pimentel (5.52 ERA) – 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 3 K, 81 Pitches (47 Strikes), 7 GO: 2 FO

Dario Alvarez (9.53 ERA) – 0 IP, R (0 ER), BB, 1 IR – 0 S

Chase Bradford (BS, 1, 0.87 ERA) – 1.1 IP, H, R (0 ER), 3 GO: 2 FO, 2 IR – 2 S

Josh Smoker – 1 IP, 2 H, R, BB, 3 K

Jeff Walters (5.40 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 FO

Batters

1B – Ty Kelly – 2-4, R, BB, PO

2B – Matt Reynolds – 2-3, R, BB, SB (4), SAC

LF – Roger Bernadina – 1-3, 2 R, RBI (6), 2 BB, SB (6), 2 K

RF – Travis Taijeron – 2-3, 2B (4), 2 RBI (8), GIDP

SS – Gavin Cecchini – 2-4, 2B (1), K

CF – Brandon Nimmo – 1-3, SAC, GIDP

Recap

            It was an up-and-down game for Las Vegas Saturday night: they spent the first half of the game sitting pretty, and then the second half trying to claw their way back on top. The 51s provided starter Stolmy Pimentel with 3 runs early, and he did a good job protecting the lead over his 5+ innings, but things fell apart for Las Vegas in the 6^th. They still had a chance to pull back ahead and win this game, but more sloppy play in the 8^th opened the door for a fifth Isotopes run, and Las Vegas couldn’t match that tally in this one.

            The game couldn’t have started better for the 51s. Pimentel struck out Rafael Ynoa to get the 1^st going, and then retired the next two on groundouts for a clean inning. Ty Kelly was leading off for Las Vegas, and he started the bottom of the 1^st inning with a single to RF. Matt Reynolds and Roger Bernadina followed with singles of their own, and just like that the 51s were up 1-0. But they weren’t done yet, as Travis Taijeron then came through with a two-run double to LF that made it a 3-0 game.

            The Isotopes got one of those runs right back in the 2^nd thanks to Cody Decker, who led off the frame with a single and came around to score before Joey Wong was thrown out to end the frame. Pimentel didn’t face trouble again until the 6^th, and it was again Decker causing the problems. Decker led off the frame with a double to LF, which didn’t look like a problem after Stolmy retired the next to Albuquerque batters, but would come back to haunt the 51s.

            Manager Wally Backman has long been known for a high number of bullpen changes, and his micromanaging popped up in the 6^th. After allowing the double to Decker, Pimentel retired the next two batters on a groundout and pop out. Lefty Joey Wong was due up next, and he had picked up a hit off of Stolmy earlier in the game, but he also struck out to end the 4^th inning. Pimentel was only at 81 pitches, so he probably hadn’t reached his limit for the start yet, but Wally chose to bring in Dario Alvarez to face the lefty. Alvarez would walk Wong, and then Wally would walk his way out to the mound for a new reliever. Chase Bradford allowed an RBI single to the first batter he saw, and then pinch-hitter Tim Smalling sent a fly ball to deep CF that deflected off of Brandon Nimmo’s glove for a 2-run, 3-base error, which changed the complexion of this game.

            The 51s were down but not yet out of it. Pinch-hitter Nevin Ashley picked up his first hit of the year to bring home Roger Bernadina with two outs in the 7^th and tie the game up at 4.

            However, the tie would not last long. Josh Smoker struck out 3 in the 8^th inning, but also allowed the go-ahead run. Stephen Cardullo hit a one out double to get things going for Albuquerque. Jeff Bianchi would rip a single into RF two batters later that loaded the bases, but the 51s should’ve picked up an out on the play. The ball stayed up, so the runners had to hold halfway, but Roger Bernadina came up firing to 3B instead of 2B, and his throw sailed over a jumping Gavin Cecchini’s glove with no Isotopes runner near the 2B bag. Smoker struck out the final two batters of the frame, but his splitter got away from Johnny Monell with two outs, and the winning run came home from 3B. One good note on Smoker is that he was sitting 94-96 MPH in this outing, which is higher than the 92-94 MPH calls I had been hearing from Russ Langer to this point.

            The 51s would have one more chance to tie the game, but they couldn’t get Gavin Cecchini home after his leadoff double in the 8^th. For some reason Brandon Nimmo was asked to sacrifice bunt Cecchini over to 3B in the frame, then Daniel Muno struck out and Marc Krauss hit a groundout to 1B. I can’t imagine Nimmo bunting on his own there, but I also can’t understand why a manager would trade an out for the 2B-to-3B upgrade in that spot. Cecchini can score from 2B on most hits to the outfield, and Brandon Nimmo is both a good hitter and top prospect. Also, when you’re trailing and down to 6 outs, giving one out away to advance a baserunner to 3B is not worth it. Finally, this is the PCL, no other team is playing small ball.

            This series continues Sunday afternoon at 3:05 PM, with Rafael Montero scheduled to start after rejoining the team Saturday.

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