Rough First From Thor NOT too Much to Overcome for the 51s

New Orleans Zephyrs @ Las Vegas 51s

August 22, 2014

Andrew Heaney @ Noah Syndergaard

Teams	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11		R	H	E
New Orleans	5	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0		7	11	1
Las Vegas	0	0	2	1	3	0	1	0	0	0	1		8	14	2

Win: Reid (5-1, 4.70 ERA); Loss: Evans (5-8, 4.42 ERA)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Noah Syndergaard (4.85 ERA) – 6 IP, 8 H, 6 R (5 ER), BB, 8 SO, HBP, 102 Pitches (67 Strikes), 8 GO: 2 FO, (1-2, R, SO)

Zack Thornton (3.95 ERA) – 1.1 IP, R, BB, HBP, SO, 2 GO

Jack Leathersich (H, 1, 6.75 ERA) – 0.1 IP, SO, 1 IR – 0 S

Chase Bradford (BS, 2, 3.67 ERA) – 1.1 IP, 2 H, 2 SO, 2 GO, 1 IR – 1 R

Ryan Reid – 2 IP, H, BB, 3 GO

Batters

Cesar Puello – 1-5, 2 R, BB, 2 SO

Matt Reynolds – 4-4, 2 R, 2B (13), BB, SB (9)

Josh Satin – 1-4, R, 2 RBI (46), BB, SF

Kevin Plawecki – 1-3, 2 R, 3 BB, SO

Cory Vaughn – 1-3, 2 RBI (24)

Anthony Seratelli – 1-4, 2B (8), RBI (29), SO

Daniel Muno – 3-6, RBI (59), 2 SO

Recap:

            Noah Syndergaard bounced back after his worst 1^st inning of the year to keep the Las Vegas 51s in the game long enough to come back and win it against New Orleans Friday night. The 51s would slowly fight their way back into a 6-5 lead by the end of the 5^th, while Thor dialed it up to have a very impressive stretch of four innings. Unfortunately, after having been given a lead, Thor would allow the Zephyrs to tie the game back up in the top of the 6^th, although he worked out of what could have been a much worse inning for him. Zack Thornton came in and looked so sharp with the game tied the 7^th that Wally Backman had no reason to worry about sending him back out for the 8^th, now pitching with a lead. Thornton was not as effective in the 8^th, leaving with only one man retired and the 51s in a tough spot. Jack Leathersich would come in for the second out of the inning, a strikeout, but Wally Backman chose to bring in Chase Bradford for the final out. Bradford would get the third out of the inning, but not before allowing the tying run to score. Bradford and Reid would combine to keep the Zephyrs off the scoreboard the rest of the way, allowing for a walkoff win in the 11^th. Offensively, Matt Reynolds and Daniel Muno were huge for the 51s, combining for half of the teams hits.

Thor Pitch Coverage

Table 1 – Breaking down pitch count by type and inning

Count (Strikes) – Average Speed	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	Total
Fastball	17 (8) 96.3	7 (3) 97.4	7 (5) 97.7	6 (5) 96	7 (7) 97.4	12 (11) 97	56 (39) 97*
Change-up	4 (4) 85	3 (2) 86.7	0	0	2 (0) 86	0	9 (6)ª 85.9
Breaking Ball	2 (1)	4 (2) 80.5	2 (2) 80.5	4 (3) 78	8 (5) 80	9 (4) 80.9	29 (17) 80.4º
Unknown	3 (3)	0	0	5 (2)	0	0	8 (5)
Total	26 (16)	14 (7)	9 (7)	15 (10)	17 (12)	21 (15)	102 (67)

 *46/56 Fastballs; ª8/9 Change-ups; º26/29 Curveballs

Table 2 – Breaking down pitch results by type

	Strike % Total Call Sw Foul	BIP% LD GB FB PU	Results AB BABIP ISO K
Fastball	73.2 19.6 17.9 14.3	10 60 30 0	14 .600 .214 4
Change-up	66.7 22.2 11.1 11.1	100 0 0 0	2 1.00 1.00 0
Breaking Ball	65.5 10.3 27.6 6.90	0 100 0 0	8 .000 .000 4

*A popout, a lineout and two groundouts on unknown pitches

Bowman Continues To Turn it Up, But 51s Bats Go Silent

New Orleans Zephyrs @ Las Vegas 51s

August 20, 2014

Alex Sanabia @ Matthew Bowman

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

Win: Sanabia (6-5, 4.86 ERA); Loss: Bowman (2-2, 1.74 ERA); Save: Caminero (8)

MiLB.com Boxscore

The Highlights:

Pitchers

Matthew Bowman – 7 IP, 4 H, R, BB, 9 SO, 96 Pitches (64 Strikes), 6 GO, (1-2)

Batters

Daniel Muno – 3-4

Recap:

            Matthew Bowman continued to impress against the PCL Wednesday night, throwing seven very strong innings in a tough-luck loss against New Orleans. After allowing a run on three singles in the 1^st, Bowman retired 18 of the final 20 batters he faced, including all nine of his strikeouts and six of his groundouts. Unfortunately, the 51s offense failed to capitalize on their chances, instead ruining four innings with three double plays – 1^st, 3^rd and 7^th innings – and a crazy triple play in the 4^th. After Daniel Muno and Matt Reynolds hit back-to-back singles to leadoff the 4^th inning, Josh Satin hit a grounder at the second baseman that looked like a routine double play ball. However, as they Zephyrs turned the double play, Muno rounded 3B and broke for home. Unfortunately, as you can see below, he was a dead duck at home. Double and triple plays are the real rally killers of a game, and it’s hard for a team to overcome four such instances in one game, but Bowman gave them every chance to walk away with a win if they could only scratch out a couple of runs. That said, as far as 2014 51s lineups go, this seemed like one of the weaker ones going in, but perhaps I’m just having some prospect bias.