Matz, Montero and the 51s Batz too Much For Fresno

Fresno Grizzlies @ Las Vegas 51s

April 19, 2015

Brady Rodgers @ Rafael Montero

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Fresno	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	5	9	0
Las Vegas	0	1	1	0	3	3	1	1	X	10	13	1

W: Matz (1-1, 2.93 ERA); L Rodgers (0-1, 13.50 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Rafael Montero – 2.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R (1 ER), BB, 3 SO, 44 Pitches (26 Strikes), 3 GO: 1 FO

John Church (7.20 ERA) – 0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 GO

Steven Matz – 5 IP, 3 H, R, 3 BB, 5 SO, 89 Pitches (52 Strikes), 7 GO: 1 FO

Zack Thornton (4.70 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, BB, 3 GO

Batters

Dilson Herrera – 2-5, R, 2B (3), 2 RBI (4)

Darrell Ceciliani – 1-4, R, 3B (1), RBI (3), BB

Matt Reynolds – 3-5, R, 2B (6), 4 RBI (15), SO

Alex Castellanos – 1-4, 2B (5), RBI (12), HBP

Johnny Monell – 1-5, R, SO

Kevin Plawecki – 0-2, SO (Removed to be promoted to the Mets)

Brandon Allen – 1-3, R, HR (2), 2 RBI (6), SF

Travis Taijeron – 1-3, 2 R, 3B (), BB

Wilfredo Tovar – 2-3, 3 R, BB, 2 SB (3), SO

Recap:

On a day when the Mets “stole” two of the top 51s players mid-game (Kevin Plawecki and Hansel Robles), leaving their roster short, the Las Vegas bats made sure that neither player would be needed. For the third straight game they managed a double-digit runs total, putting them at 37 runs on 50 hits through the first three games of this series against Fresno, who came to Vegas as one of the top all-around teams in the PCL. The 51s may have lost those two stud prospects, but they had two other top prospects scheduled to pitch today, as the Mets push Rafael Montero ahead of Steven Matz to get him on schedule for a start with the big club later this month. Montero was to be limited to 40-45 pitched, which was almost enough for him to finish the 3^rd. Matz took over starting in the 4^th and came out after 5 strong innings and 89 pitches. Zach Thornton ran into some trouble in the 9^th, leading to two runs for Fresno, but the 51s had connected for 8 runs over the previous four frames to put the game well out of reach.

Montero came out firing with a 1-2-3 1^st, but got himself in trouble with a leadoff walk in the 2^nd. He was a little wild in the long inning, throwing only 13 of 23 pitches for strikes, and allowing the two runs on two singles. He’d bounce back to retire the first two batters in the 3^rd, but he had already reached his pitch limit.

Matz came on starting in the 4^th and was excellent over his first 3 innings, retiring 9 of 10 batters, with the only base runner reaching on a leadoff walk in the top of the 5^th. Matz made the mistake of leading off the inning with a walk again in the 7^th, and this one would come back to burn him. After striking out Andrew Aplin for the first out of the 7^th, Matz allowed a single and another walk to load the bases. Matz would get L.J. Hoes to pop out to Brandon Allen at 1B, but Preston Tucker beat out an infield single on a weak grounder to Castellanos at 3B. Matz bounced back with a quick 8^th, working around a two-out single with no problems. The long 28-pitch 7^th hurt Matz’s chance of finishing this game for the 51s considering he’s likely still on a 90-pitch limit this early in the season. The three walks are a little high, but everything else sounds good. As you can see below, he sat 93-95 MPH with his fastball, 83-87 MPH with his changeup, and 75-77 MPH with his curveball.

The 51s fell behind first in this game, after Fresno took a 2-0 lead against Montero in the top of the 2^nd. But the 51s would start their comeback right away, as Brandon Allen hit a two-out bomb to right-center in the bottom of the 2^nd. Wilfredo Tovar started his hot day with a single and stolen base leading off the 3^rd, and he’d come around to score on a Matt Reynolds single. After going down quietly in the 4^th, the first four batters would reach in the 5^th: Travis Taijeron walked, Tovar singled, Dilson Herrera picked up his second hit of the game with his third double of the season, and then Darrell Ceciliani tripled home Dilson. Taijeron got the 6^th inning rally started with a one-out triple, and then came home when Matt Reynolds cleared the bases with his sixth double of the season – they had intentionally walked Darrell Ceciliani to get to Reynolds after falling behind 2-0. Reynolds would add another hit in the 8^th, and score on a double from Alex Castellanos.

The 51s and Grizzlies wrap up this series Monday night at 10 PM ET, with Matthew Bowman scheduled to start for Las Vegas. The 51s look to clinch this series and get 2 games above .500 for the first time in 2015.

Not known for his throwing in the past, Plawecki looked good gunning the runner down here, from earlier this week

Matz Pitch Coverage

Unfortunately, it was a bright day, which generally makes the Vegas scoreboard unreadable, so I had to rely on Russ Langer for pitch calls and velocities. Future efforts should be more successful.

4^th inning

1) Domingo Santana struck out swinging (K/Sw)

i. Fastball – ball 1-0, outside

ii. Fastball – ball 2-0, inside

iii. 94 MPH Fastball – swinging strike 2-1

iv. – called strike 2-2

v. 85 MPH Changeup – swinging strike 3

2) Joe Sclafani grounded out to Tovar (G/63)

i. Fastball – ball 1-0, high

ii.

3) Andrew Aplin grounded out to Monell (G/3u)

i. Fastball – ball 1-0, outside

ii. – ball 2-0, outside

iii. – called strike 2-1

iv. – called strike 2-2

v. Curveball

5^th inning

1) Luis Flores walked (BB)

i. Fastball – ball 1-0, high

ii. – called strike 1-1

iii. 95 MPH Fastball – called strike 1-2

iv. Fastball – ball 2-2, outside

v. Fastball – ball 3-2, inside

vi. Fastball – ball 4, low

2) Nolan Fontana advanced Flores with a sac bunt (Sac/53)

i. – foul bunt

ii.

3) L.J. Hoes hit a weak dribbler in front of the plate (G/23)

i. 94 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-1

ii. Fastball – ball 1-1, “way inside, nearly hit him”

iii. 83 MPH Changeup – swinging strike 1-2

iv. 93 MPH Fastball – ball 2-2, inside

4) Preston Tucker struck out looked (K/Lo)

i. – ball in dirt 1-0

ii. 78 MPH Curveball – called strike 1-1

iii. 95 MPH Fastball – ball in dirt 2-1

iv. 94 MPH Fastball – swinging strike 2-2

v. 94 MPH Fastball – ball 3-2, shoulder high

vi. – called strike 3, outside corner

6^th inning

1) Matt Duffy lined out to Ceciliani (L/9)

i. Fastball – ball 1-0, inside

ii. Fastball – ball 2-0, inside

iii. Fastball – called strike 2-1

iv. – ball 3-1, low and inside

v. 94 MPH Fastball – foul 3-2

vi.

2) Matt Dominguez grounded out to Tovar (G/63)

i. – ball 1-0, outside

ii. Off speed – ball 2-0, up and away

iii.

3) Santana struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. 94 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. 77 MPH Curveball – swinging strike 0-2

iii. 77 MPH Curveball – ball 1-2, low

iv. 77 MPH Curveball – called strike 3

7^th inning

1) Sclafani walked (BB)

i. 93 MPH Fastball – called strike 0-1

ii. Fastball – ball 1-1, inside

iii. – foul 1-2

iv. Off speed – ball 2-2, outside

v. Off speed – ball 3-2

vi. Fastball – ball 4, inside

2) Aplin struck out looking (K/Lo)

i. – ball 1-0, inside

ii. Fastball – foul tip 1-1 “he was way late”

iii. Fastball – foul 1-2

iv. – foul 1-2

v. 77 MPH Curveball – called strike 3

3) Flores lined a single into RF (S/L9)

4) Fontana walked (BB)

i. 75 MPH Curveball – ball 1-0

ii. 93 MPH Fastball – called strike 1-1

iii. 77 MPH Curveball – called strike 1-2

iv. Curveball – foul 1-2

v. Fastball – ball 2-2, “just outside… er, perhaps… close”

vi. Curveball – ball 3-2, low

vii. Fastball – ball 4, low

5) Hoes popped out to Allen (P/3)

i. 93 MPH Fastball – foul 0-1

ii. Curveball – called strike 0-2

iii. Curveball – foul 0-2 “doubled up on that slow hook in the mid-70’s”

iv. Fastball – ball 1-2, “way up high”

v. Curveball

6) Tucker reached on an RBI infield single (S/G5)

i. Curveball – called strike 0-1, outside corner

ii. Fastball – ball 1-1, outside

iii.

7) Duffy flied out to Ceciliani (F/9)

i. Fastball

8^th inning

1) Dominguez grounded out to Tovar (G/63)

i. – called strike 0-1, at the knees

ii. Fastball – foul 0-2

iii. – ball 1-2, “way high”

iv. – ball 2-2, to the backstop

v. Off speed – foul 2-2

vi. Off speed – foul 2-2

vii. – ball 3-2, high

viii. Fastball

2) Santana struck out swinging (K/Sw)

i. Fastball – swinging strike 0-1

ii. – ball 1-1, up and away

iii. Curveball – swinging strike 1-2

iv. Fastball – swinging strike 3

3) Sclafani singled into LF (S/G7)

i. – foul 0-1

ii. Fastball – ball 1-1, up and away

iii. Curveball – ball 2-1 “missed somewhere”

iv.

4) Aplin grounded out to Castellanos (G/53)

How to honor 25 years of #Hubble? Start work on a successor to find life around other stars. http://t.co/LxyNN1joJV pic.twitter.com/OW7veoOAyV
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) April 16, 2015

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