Matz Wild, 51s Bats Go Quiet in Sacramento

Las Vegas 51s @ Sacramento River Cats

April 14, 2015

Steven Matz @ Robert Coello

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

W: Coello (1-0, 1.50 ERA); L: Matz (0-1, 3.48 ERA); S: Strickland (1)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Steven Matz – 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 5 SO, 96 Pitches (58 Strikes), 4 GO: 5 FO

Hansel Robles (0.00 ERA) – 2 IP, 3 H, SO

Jack Leathersich (0.00 ERA) – 1 IP, 3 SO

Batters

Danny Muno – 1-4, R, SB (1), SO

Eric Campbell – 1-1

Johnny Monell – 1-3, RBI (1), SF, SO

Alex Castellano – 1-3, SO

Darrell Ceciliani – 1-3, R, HR (2), RBI (2), SO

Recap:

            Steven Matz was wild and the 51s bats were quiet Tuesday night, which was not a winning combination for Las Vegas in the 2^nd game of this series. Matz couldn’t command his fastball well and wasn’t getting any help from the home plate umpire, which led to a minor league career high five walks from Matz – he has walked 4 batters in a start 5 times, including twice in back-to-back starts with St. Lucie last season. The 51s best threat to score came in the 1^st, when they loaded the bases with nobody out and came away with only one run. After that threat, Sacramento starter Robert Coello shut down the 51s bat until he gave way to their pen in the 7^th. His only other blemish was the two-out homerun Darrell Ceciliani would launch to RF in the 5^th inning. The 51s got 3 more scoreless innings out of their bullpen Tuesday night, as Hansel Robles worked through some trouble over his two innings, and Jack Leathersich looked great striking out the side in the 8^th. It’s only been 3 appearances, but Leathersich has K’d 7 of the 9 batters he has faced without allowing a walk (he does have a HBP though). The 51s will send Matthew Bowman to the mound in the rubber match of this series, which is set for Wednesday afternoon at 3 PM. Check out more Matz discussion and gifs below, as well as Ceciliani’s homerun and the reliever’s strikeouts.

Scoring Highlights

            The 51s got off to a quick start in the 1^st, as Danny Muno led the game off with an infield single and stolen base, Matt Reynolds followed with a walk, and Eric Campbell singled to LF to load the bases for Johnny Monell. Monell would pick up a sac fly to bring home Muno and move Reynolds to 3B. Castellanos followed with a fly ball to medium depth in LF that appeared to lead to a Reynolds run, but apparently Reynolds had left 3B too soon. Additionally, the throw home was cut off and the River Cats tagged Campbell out at 2B, which is the description in the MiLB.com box score. After that, the only offense of note was this solo blast from Darrell Ceciliani with two outs in the 5^th.

Ceciliani's second HR of the year

Matz Coverage

            Matz did not have his best control of his fastball Tuesday night and it led to a lot of problems. He walked a batter in every inning and was involved in a lot of long at bats. Even when Matz was near the zone, he wasn’t getting any help from the ump on close calls. This was especially true of his curveball, which was Matz’s best pitch on the night, but Sacramento hitters started laying off when he wasn’t getting any close calls. There is one borderline curveball among the gifs below that was called a strike, but the next pitch was a curve that got more plate and called a ball – inconsistent home plate umpires are so very frustrating. The River Cats hits off Matz weren’t loud, but the Sacramento batters showed great patience against him, and it paid off with the 5 walks. I was a little surprised he went out for the 5^th with a pitch count in the mid-80’s, but it worked out fine, as he was efficient except for the walk. Matz now has 9 K: 8 BB in his 10.1 IP for Las Vegas this season, so it’s clear what the problem is.

Relief Coverage

Hansel Robles struck out the final batter he faced in the 7^th.

Jack Leathersich struck out the side in the 8^th.

NASA-funded study explains Saturn’s epic tantrums, http://t.co/hkppHtArno pic.twitter.com/W6yunVq8Zr
— Astronomy Magazine (@AstronomyMag) April 14, 2015