51s stay sharp, rally for victory over Salt Lake
The 51s’ roster has gone through major shake-ups as the New York Mets have continued to sell off and made call-ups.
On Aug. 1, Amed Rosario and Chasen Bradford went to New York. Since then, Dominic Smith, Gavin Cecchini, Matt Reynolds and Kevin Plawecki are among those who have followed.
Other movement this month includes promotions, demotions, a minor league trade and a free-agent signing.
But despite the roster being in flux, Las Vegas has been playing well.
After returning from a 5-3 trip, the 51s started their eight-game homestand with a 10-5 win over the Salt Lake Bees on Saturday night at Cashman Field before a sellout crowd of 10,854.
“I thought we were going to start playing a lot better baseball with a lot better mentality, and I think we’ve done that, especially the past two weeks or so,” outfielder Jayce Boyd said. “We’ve played a lot of good baseball, and that’s all you can ask for, especially at this time of year whenever … the season hasn’t gone how you wanted it to, and guys are still showing up every day hungry and ready to play the game and get better.”
The 51s (50-77) fell into an immediate deficit Saturday when Jonathan Albaladejo gave up hits to the first four batters for Salt Lake (64-63). That produced three runs, and Dustin Ackley’s solo home run to begin the second put the 51s in a 4-0 hole.
“The first inning, everything was up in the zone,” Las Vegas manager Pedro Lopez said. “First and second inning, everything was up in the zone, every ball, every hit that he gave up, he was either down the middle or up in the zone, and then after that, he did a good job. Located his pitches well and gave us a chance to win a ballgame.”
The 51s cut the deficit to 4-3 in the second inning. After Osmer Morales walked two, Josh Rodriguez made him pay with his 12th home run of the season.
The 51s tied the score 4-4 in the fifth with an RBI single from Cody Decker before Boyd gave Las Vegas a 6-4 lead with a two-run homer off Morales in the sixth.
“I was watching when he was falling behind or when he needed to get an early strike, he was going to his offspeed a little bit more,” Boyd said. “I just sat on something out over the plate, something soft, and luckily got that first-pitch change-up and got exactly what I was looking for and put a good swing on it.”
The 51s padded their lead with four runs in the seventh on two-run singles from Travis Snider and Xorge Carrillo
“I’m telling you right now this is a completely different ballclub from the first half,” Lopez said. “The second half, even before we lost Dom and Rosario and all those guys that we lost, I thought that we were playing much better as a team, and I think now you see kind of the result of the way they’ve been going about their business all year.”
Up next
Who: Salt Lake at Las Vegas
When: 7:05 p.m. Sunday
Where: Cashman Field
Starters: Troy Scribner (11-3, 4.22 ERA), Salt Lake, vs. Donovan Hand (3-5, 7.76 ERA)
Next five
Monday: Salt Lake at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.
Tuesday: Salt Lake at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Reno at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.
Friday: Reno at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.
Update
51s catcher Kevin Plawecki was called up Saturday after Mets veteran catcher Rene Rivera was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs. Plawecki was hitting .328 in 64 games with Las Vegas.
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
