Comeback attempt falls short as 51s lose to Isotopes
The 51s’ comeback attempt fell just short Sunday.
Approximately 90 feet short.
Las Vegas dropped the series finale 7-6 to Albuquerque, ending the game with the tying run, Gavin Cecchini, on third base.
“We had a chance,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said.
The did give themselves a chance, battling back by scoring a pair of runs in the eighth inning on a 3 double to center and a Luis Guillorme groundout.
They added another in the ninth on Matt den Dekker’s fourth home run of the season to cut the Albuquerque (9-15) lead to just one.
But despite singles from Cecchini and Dominic Smith to keep the rally alive, Las Vegas couldn’t convert in the ninth inning to come back from the hole it had been put in earlier in the game.
Las Vegas (9-15) never led in the game, falling behind in the first inning after Vance Worley, making his first start of the season for the 51s, gave up a pair of runs.
They did tie the game in the top of the fourth on a Guillorme double, which drove in Smith and David Thompson. But that tie was short-lived as Worley struggled with his control.
The veteran gave up three straight walks to begin the bottom of the fourth, exiting after 53 pitches.
DeFrancesco said his pitch count was 60 pitches. Worley is still working to get his arm in shape after opting out of his contract with the Reds earlier this month and then signing with the Mets.
“It seemed like (when) he got into the fourth inning, he ran out of gas,” DeFrancesco said. “He started three walks to start the bottom of the fourth, put us in a hole.”
Kevin McGowan was summoned to do damage control and for a minute, it looked like he might get out of the jam relatively unscathed, giving up a run on a sacrifice fly before retiring the next batter.
But McGowan couldn’t stop the bleeding, giving up back-to-back hits to Raimel Tapia and Shawn O’Malley that allowed three more runs to score.
“He had a chance to get out of it with one run,” DeFrancesco said. “He had two strikes on Tapia, came inside, he got a base-hit to right center. They wound up scoring four that inning. He gave up a home run in the following inning.”
And though the 51s chipped away at the lead after that, they never totally recovered from that inning, trailing for the rest of the day.
The game snapped the 51s four-game winning streak as they concluded their most successful series of the early season with a loss.
“Overall just a great series winning four out of five,” DeFrancesco said. “(Now) we’ve got to start playing some good baseball at home.”
Thompson injured
Third baseman David Thompson was hit by a pitch on the left hand and left the game early on Sunday.
“He’s going to need an X-ray tomorrow,” DeFrancesco said. “It started swelling up on him.”
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Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
