51s fall to Sacramento in early-morning game

They had their chances in the first inning and they had some as the game wore on.

But they couldn’t convert those runners into runs for the most part, leaving eight runners on and making too many mental mistakes in a 5-1 loss to Sacramento on Tuesday afternoon at Cashman Field.

After a scoreless top of the first from P.J. Conlon, the 51s came out with hits from three of the first four hitters, giving Las Vegas (10-16) the bases loaded with just one out.

But when Ty Kelly grounded into a double play to end the inning, their best opportunity of the game fell by the wayside.

“We had the momentum from last night,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “l think we hit the ball hard. (Dominic Smith) had a base hit to left field. I held the runner up. It was too early. And (Eury) Perez throws pretty good. That was a big part of the game. We had a couple chances later on, just no big hits.”

The 51s had baserunners on throughout the game, getting eight hits off Sacramento (12-13) starter Matt Gage, but they only scored once off him on a Luis Guillorme RBI single.

Gage gave up just the run, which was unearned, in 5 1/3 innings, while striking out one.

His counterpart, Conlon, gave up a run in the third inning when a Ryder Jones single plated Perez.

The very next inning, Perez provided the dagger, hitting a three-run blast to put his team up by four.

“I think we had like nine hits off their starter and only one run. That happens sometimes,” Conlon said. “He was keeping us off balance. We had a couple opportunities and we just came up short a couple times and they had the home run (that) was big for them. If that doesn’t happen, then it’s a completely different ballgame.”

Conlon said he felt like he was throwing the ball well throughout his start. The only pitch he was upset about was the pitch that Myles Schroder doubled off of to lead off the fourth. He threw five innings and gave up four runs on six hits.

“The home run 2-0 changeup, (Perez) was out in front (and) just kind of put a good part of the bat on it and it just sneaked out,” Conlon said. “It happens here but I was happy with (the start). I thought I was being efficient. I didn’t really think they were putting great swings on me. I think it was a lot better than what it showed. The five innings, four runs doesn’t look very good but I thought there was a lot of bright spots and I thought I was throwing the ball really well.”

The 51s didn’t have the sharpest game behind him, making multiple mental mistakes. They also made two errors in the game.

“I’m not blaming the early day but playing at 10:30 in the morning after you train to play night games, your sleep’s off, your focus is off,” DeFrancesco said. “Every game you say somebody is going to win or lose the game and they were more ready than we were today.”

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Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.