51s beat Bees, snap four-game losing streak
Less than a week ago, Peter Alonso’s massive power was on display for a national audience in the Futures Game.
The first baseman hit a 415-foot blast at Nationals Park, showing that the big first baseman has no trouble hitting the ball out of the park.
Thursday, improbably, Alonso hit a home run that that stayed in the park.
Alonso’s inside-the-parker broke open a tie game in the sixth inning and propelled the 51s to a 6-4 victory over the Bees at Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake as they snapped their four-game losing streak.
“The way the ball kicked off the wall, he ran hard out of the box,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “It hit the top of the wall and kicked halfway back toward the infield and the center fielder got it. Didn’t have a very good, strong throw to home plate. It was a much-needed run at the time.”
Alonso’s home run, which hit high off the fence in right center, was one of two hits for the Mets’ No. 2 prospect, a positive sign for him after he had been held hitless in the first three games of the series.
“He took a nice base hit to right field and then hit the ball well to right center so hopefully this will give him some confidence going into Reno,” DeFrancesco said. “If he just barrels up some balls there, he should have some success.”
After Alonso put the 51s (46-52) ahead, Las Vegas scored again in the seventh and two more times in the eighth inning to give itself some breathing room.
Both Christian Colon and Phillip Evans had three hits in the win with Evans driving in a pair and Colon driving in one.
“The guys swung the bats today,” DeFrancesco said. “Evans had three hits with a couple RBIs and a couple walks. … Colon has been swinging the bat well. Seven out of his last eight at-bats, he got hits.”
That was enough run support for Chris Flexen, who went seven innings and gave up just two runs on four hits while striking out five Bees (51-47).
“He had a really good demeanor on the mound,” DeFrancesco said. “He was aggressive in the zone. He looked more focused than I remember and he executed pitches.”
The only two runs he gave up came on solo home runs to Michael Hermosillo and Ben Revere in the fourth and fifth innings respectively.
It was his third straight quality start and DeFrancesco said he thought it was one of his best of the season. It was also the 51s’ best start of the series after three sub-par starts.
“As long as we get starting pitching, I think our lineup is as good as its been all year,” DeFrancesco said. “We’ve just got to try to minimize some of the mistakes but starting pitching if we can get five or six innings, three or less runs, we should have a good month and a half to go.”
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