Ceciliani Goes Deep Twice, Bowman Has Best Start of 2015

Albuquerque Isotopes @ Las Vegas 51s

April 26, 2015

David Hale @ Matthew Bowman

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Albuquerque	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0		4	6	1
Las Vegas	4	3	0	1	2	0	0	0	X		10	11	2

W: Bowman (1-3, 8.69 ERA); L: Hale (0-1, 37.80 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Matt Bowman – 5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 3 SO, 83 Pitches (54 Strikes), 11 GO: 3 FO

Cody Satterwhite (11.05 ERA) – 1.1 IP, H, R, 4 GO, 2 IR – 0 S

Scott Rice (1.35 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 1 GO

Zack Thornton (5.56 ERA) – 1.2 IP, BB, SO, 4 GO

Batters

Dilson Herrera – 2-4, 3 R, 2B (6), BB

Darrell Ceciliani – 2-5, 2 R, 2 HR (4), SO, GIDP

Matt Reynolds – 1-3, 2 R, BB, SO

Johnny Monelly – 2-5, R, RBI (8), 2 SO

Alex Castellanos – 2-4, 2 R, 3B (2), RBI (15), SB (2), 2 SO

Brandon Allen – 1-2, 2 RBI (10), BB, SF, SO

Travis Taijeron 1-3, RBI (12), BB, 2 SO

Recap

            The Las Vegas bats stayed on fire upon their return home Sunday afternoon, and Matt Bowman had his best start yet, as the 51s beat up on Albuquerque in the opener of this four-game series. Matthew Bowman was in peak form early, pounding the bottom of the zone to get groundball after groundball as he went perfectly through the first 4.1 innings. While Bowman was barely spending any time on the mound early, the 51s bats were wearing out Albuquerque starter David Hale, who was on rehab and only lasted 1.2 IP. Another former major league starter would follow, and the Mets would add three more runs against Aaron Laffey to make it 10-0. Albuquerque would break through for a few runs off Bowman in the 6^th and one off Satterwhite in the 7^th, but the lead was too big to overcome, even at Cashman field.

            Bowman had still been getting a lot of groundballs early this season, but he had been giving up a lot of hard contact to lefties (1.673 OPS), and being burned with runners on base (1.723 OPS). On Sunday, he handled the tough lefties batting 2-4 in the Isotopes lineup just fine, holding them two 2 singles in 9 plate appearances, both of which came in the 6^th. And he addressed his other problem by not allowing any runners on base over the first four innings, needing only 36 pitches in the process. The Mets have instructed Bowman to change his approach and start relying on his fastball more early in the start, and then showing his other weapons the second and third time through the order. It was during the third time through the order that Bowman ran into wall named BABIP, and that wall smacked him down hard. He hurt himself by walking the leadoff batter in the 6^th inning, which was his second walk in four batters after none through his first 4.2 IP. The next batter reached on a flare to LF before Bowman got the first out of the inning on a fly ball to RF. The next four batters would hit groundballs, which is exactly what Bowman is looking for, but three of those grounders would find holes. Overall it was a promising start for Bowman, as he appeared to recapture the form from his special run during 2014.

            This 51s offense is ridiculous, reaching a double-digit hit total yet again, including four extra bases hits, which increases their PCL-best OPS to .876 – 2^nd place Fresno has an .800 OPS as a team, and the 51s use pitchers as hitters sometimes. Darrell Ceciliani was the stud of this game, hitting two two-run homeruns off two pitchers who have had major league success. He has 11 hits this season, and 8 of them have gone for extra bases – 3 doubles, a triple and 4 homeruns. Dilson Herrera started the first with a double off the RF wall, and had his 11^th multi-hit game of the season already, including 10 multi-hit games in his last 11 starts. Alex Castellanos hit a triple and has been crushing the ball all season, and he leads the PCL with a 1.218 OPS thanks to 14 XBH in 15 games.

            Cody Satterwhite did a great job of getting out of Bowman’s jam with no damage done in the 6^th, but a leadoff double in the 7^th led to a run for the Isotopes. Scott Rice came in for a batter in the 8^th and did his job. After a less than inspiring spring and a very wild start, Rice has looked like the pitcher who was a reliable LOOGY for the Mets in 2013.
            Las Vegas has a double-header Monday starting at 9 PM. Noah Syndergaard will start in the opener on several days of extra rest, which has historically not been a good thing for him. Darin Gorski is scheduled to start in game two, which is going to be a late game for East coasters.

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