51s hang on for 11-10 win over New Orleans
The Las Vegas lead started to slip away little by little. First, it was four runs. Then another the next inning. And two more an inning later.
The 51s had held the lead in their grip since the third inning when they scored eight runs, but the game got so close that New Orleans brought the game-tying run to the plate in the ninth inning after once being down nine runs.
A Phillip Evans home run in the seventh helped the 51s stave off the comeback attempt for an 11-10 win over the Baby Cakes on Tuesday night at Cashman Field.
For close as New Orleans got, it still couldn’t dig itself out of the hole from the 51s’ eight-run third inning.
The eight runs were the most the 51s (25-34) have scored in an inning this year.
The 51s scored runs in the inning off of RBI hits from Evans, Christian Colon, Cody Asche and Johnny Monell as well as one on a Chris Flexen sacrifice fly and a run on a passed ball.
“You could see one guy gets a hit, the next guy gets a hit, the next guy gets a hit,” outfielder Kevin Kaczmarski said. “Hitting’s contagious. It really is. So, when that’s going on there’s just good vibes. You definitely try to soak it up and continue that.”
Kaczmarski started the third with a triple to lead off the inning. It was one of three hits on the night for the center fielder, who finished the game a home run short of the cycle.
He is now hitting .424 since joining the 51s in late May after recovering from an injury at the beginning of the year.
“He’s a nice little spark for us. We’re looking for somebody with some energy,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “He’s come to the ballpark. He’s ready to go every day. I don’t think he’s going to give us a lot of power but he’s a good leadoff guy, puts the ball in play (and) gives us a quality at-bat.”
Both Kaczmarski and Colon finished the game with three hits while Evans, Asche and Dominic Smith each added a pair.
Flexen, the 51s’ starter, started to falter as the game wore on, giving up an unearned run in the first inning before three scoreless innings.
In the fifth, the Baby Cakes (27-31) scored four off of him and they added another in the sixth before he left the game.
All told, he gave up six runs — five earned — in 5 1/3 innings. He gave up two home runs and struck out seven.
“Early in the game, he looked like he was in total control. At one point, he struck out three, four batters in a row and he had a good breaking ball going, his fastball, he was commanding it and then I don’t know what happened after that,” DeFrancesco said. “I mean it’s easy to lose concentration when you’re up by that many runs, but he’s got to definitely do a better job when he’s got a lead like that. It’s one of those games you could have got some innings, given a break to our bullpen but it didn’t happen.”
Kyle Regnault gave up a pair of runs before Eric Hanhold tossed two scoreless innings. Jacob Rhame, brought in with a three-run lead, gave up a two-run blast to make the game really interesting.
“Baseball, you get games like this,” DeFrancesco said. “It would have been nice to win the game 10-1 but the other team’s not going to quit so you’ve got keep fighting.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
