Matz No-Hits Reno Through 6.2, 51s Settle for 2-hitter

Las Vegas 51s @ Reno Aces

April 24, 2015

Steven Matz @ Vidal Nuno

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Las Vegas	1	0	0	0	4	0	0	3	4		12	15	0
Reno	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	2	0

W: Matz (2-1, 2.01 ERA); L: Nuno (2-1, 3.60 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Steven Matz – 7 IP, 2 H, BB, 5 SO, 92 Pitches (65 Strikes), 13 GO: 2 FO (2-3, R, SO)

Zack Thornton (6.52 ERA) – 1 IP, 1 GO

Jack Leathersich (2.57 ERA) – 1 IP, 2 SO, 1 FO

Batters

Dilson Herrera – 2-6, R, 2B (5), 2 RBI (9)

Wilfredo Tovar – 1-6, R, 2B (3), RBI (2)

Matt Reynolds – 2-4, R, HR (2), 3 RBI (18), BB, SB (5), SO

Alex Castellanos – 3-5, 3 R, 2B (7), HR (5), RBI (14)

Kyle Johnson – 2-4, R, 2 RBI (5)

Recap

            Steven Matz was at his absolute best against the Reno Aces Friday night, holding them hitless for 6.2 innings before a Nick Evans grounder found a hole. He had good command of his fastball and changeup, and mixed in his curve nicely as the start went on. With 92 pitches and no more no-hitter, Matz was removed for the 8^th, but Zack Thornton and Jack Leathersich each pitched a perfect inning to preserve the 2-hitter. O yeah, and the offense exploded to put up crooked numbers in the 5^th, 8^th and 9^th (against SS Danny Worth in the 9^th), with Dilson Herrera, Matt Reynolds and Alex Castellanos having big nights again. Herrera, Reynolds, Castellanos and Taijeron have been the driving forces behind a very potent offense lately, which has been thriving even though the 51s have lost 3 starters to Major League promotions. The 51s go home Saturday and send Noah Syndergaard to the mound in the opener of a 4-game set with Albuquerque, with a game time of 10:05 PM ET. Don’t forget to check out the highlights from the offensive outburst and the Steven Matz show below.

Scoring Highlights

            Dilson Herrera led off the 1^st inning with a double off the LF wall, and then came around to score on an RBI single from Matt Reynolds.

The Dilson-Reynolds combo works great in Las Vegas

            Steven Matz led off the 5^th with his second single of the night, and then came around to score on this Wilfredo Tovar double, his third of the year.

Tovar's been making some loud contact lately

            Matt Reynolds brought himself and Tovar home with his second blast of the year, this shot to left-center field.

            Alex Castellanos would follow the blast from Reynolds with one of his own, his fifth on the young season.

Nearly the same place he hit a homer here earlier in the week

            Castellanos would leadoff the 7^th with a double off the top of the LF wall. He’d come around to score on an RBI single from Brandon Allen. After newly acquired Dan Rohlfing hit a groundball that started a double play, Kyle Johnson come through with a two-out RBI single back up the middle. After Monell walked to keep the inning alive, Dilson brought Johnson home with his second hit of the night – he now has 10 multi-hit games already this year.

            The 51s would add four runs in the 9^th, but they were all off of a position player on the mound, so we’ll spare Danny Worth the looping memories from his forgetful appearance, and hope any future mound endeavor goes better.

Matz Coverage

            Since I haven’t seen the AA Championship clinching start from Matz yet, I can say for certain that this was easily the best I’ve seen Matz pitch. Reno batters were either pounding one of the first few pitches from Matz into the ground, or else Matz would strike them out – 20 of the 24 batters Matz faced had their at bat end in a groundball or a strikeout. He came in having issued 11 walks over his first 3 appearances, but only issued 1 Friday night, and it took a battle to draw it out of him – Peter O’Brien fouled off some nasty changeups from Matz to stay alive before taking a ball 4 so close that even the Reno announcer sounded surprised it wasn’t strike 3. I’m not saying the Mets need to clear a spot for Matz just yet, but he’s already looking close to major league ready if they end up needing him to pitch in the majors this season (and they probably will).

Matt Pagnozzi was caught looking to end the 2^nd.

Trayvon Robinson struck out swinging for the second out in the 3^rd inning.

Danny Worth struck out leading off the 4^th.

Pagnozzi went down swinging for the second out in the 5^th.

Pagnozzi was the only Reno batter to bat with someone in scoring position, which he did with two outs in the 7^th, but he’d go down swinging again.

Bonus

.@NASA_Hubble has shown us stunning near-infrared views of the Pillars of Creation, hosting newborn stars pic.twitter.com/FBfr1REKZL
— Amber Straughn (@astraughnomer) April 24, 2015