El Paso explodes for 14 runs, hands Las Vegas 3rd straight loss
The season is still early — just five games in — but there’s a decent chance the 51s suffered what will be their most lopsided loss of the year on Monday.
Las Vegas was blanked by El Paso, losing 14-0 in the series finale on Monday night at Cashman Field. It was their third straight loss.
“Try to forget about it,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “We’ll move on tomorrow and hopefully we’ll get a few more wins on the road.”
The 51s found themselves down early as starter Mickey Jannis, who was battered around in his four-plus innings, gave up a two-run blast to Dusty Coleman in the second inning.
The Chihuahuas followed that up by adding four more runs in the third inning on two-run singles from both Diego Goris and Javy Guerra.
They added two more off Jannis in the next inning on a Raffy Lopez double and didn’t stop there, scoring three more runs in the fifth inning, one in the sixth and two in the eighth.
In total, Jannis, a knuckleballer, gave up 10 runs on 11 hits.
“I think altitude could have an effect on the baseball,” DeFrancesco said. “I haven’t seen too many knuckleballers in this league have success. It’s not a … lot of late movement. They got some pretty good swings off it. Like I said when it’s on, it’s on and when it’s off, it’s off.”
After Jannis departed, both Kelly Secrest and Kevin McGowan gave up a pair of runs in their two innings pitched.Tim Peterson was the only 51s pitcher who came away unscathed Monday, tossing a scoreless ninth inning.
The 51s, meanwhile, couldn’t get much going with the bats against El Paso starter Kyle Lloyd.
“He pitched in relief the other day. We already knew that he had a pretty good splitfinger fastball and today we just couldn’t lay off it,” DeFrancesco said. “He kept throwing it, got ahead, put us away with it. We (struck) out 10 times, didn’t have any quality at-bats and when you’re out of the game early, it becomes they’re just trying to get a hit to put themselves in good position for tomorrow’s game.”
Lloyd said he was able to locate his fastball, allowing him to throw his split later in counts.
“I think I got a little better as the game went on,” Lloyd said. “I walked a guy early, the first couple innings, so I was trying to avoid that but then I was able to attack and get some contact early that allowed me to go a little later in the game. The defense played great behind me so that always helps.”
Lloyd gave up just five hits in his seven-inning outing, two off the bat of second baseman Gavin Cecchini.
Matt den Dekker, Ty Kelly and Bryce Brentz each had a hit off Lloyd for the 51s.
“This game is about being selective at the plate,” DeFrancesco said. “Out-of-zone swings are being recorded and we’ve got to do a better job of getting a pitch to hit early and trying to make hard contact.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
