51s take series victory with win over Tacoma
Matt den Dekker missed almost the entire month of June with a knee injury. But when he came back Thursday, he made his presence felt immediately.
Den Dekker, the team’s leadoff hitter, slugged a home run on an 0-2 pitch which ensured that the 51s led from start to finish in their 5-2 victory over Tacoma on Thursday night at Cheney Stadium.
“Two hits, stolen base, it looks like he’s running well. It’s tough, luckily it wasn’t a very serious knee injury. He was able to rehab it and come back,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “He’s a well addition to the lineup now.”
A couple batters after den Dekker hit his ninth home run of the year, second baseman Jeff McNeil hit his first Triple-A home run to give the 51s (36-44) a 2-0 lead.
They padded that lead a few innings later, scoring three more runs in the fourth inning.
Two of those runs came on a Ty Kelly single and another came on a P.J. Colon single. It was one of three hits on the night for the Colon.
All of that was more than enough run support for Cody Martin and a pair of relievers.
“(We) kind of got shut down the last four innings, but I think our pitching was outstanding today,” DeFrancesco said.
Martin threw five innings and gave up two runs to Tacoma (41-39) — both in the fifth inning — on five hits while striking out five.
“I thought Martin (was) really aggressive with his fastball,” DeFrancesco said. “He spun the ball well today. He got five strikeouts. Really didn’t get in too much trouble until late there. He kind of ran out of gas.”
Buddy Baumann tossed two scoreless innings, as did Matt Purke. Each gave up a pair of hits and struck out three in their outings.
“It was good to see Buddy throw more strikes today. He had three strikeouts. He was around the zone. He did very well against lefties and I thought Purke’s been our most-improved bullpen guy,” DeFrancesco said. “He’s really been throwing the ball well. Three strikeouts, lefthanders didn’t have a chance against him and our defense was pretty solid today.”
The win gave the 51s their second straight series victory and it will send them back home winners of eight of their last 10.
“I think our pitching has given our chance, I think the back-end of our bullpen,” DeFrancesco said. “Offensively, it’s good to see guys like (Patrick) Kivlehan and Colon, some of the new additions here. (Zach) Borenstein has been pretty consistent early, has kind of had his ups and downs. The additions of McNeil and (Peter) Alonso (added) some depth. We got (Luis) Guillorme back. … One through nine I think it’s a pretty competitive lineup all the way through.”
Worth noting
Catcher Jose Lobaton went on the disabled list on Thursday.
DeFrancesco said he had tweaked his hip over the past week.
“Yesterday he showed up pretty bad so we’re going to try to give him a break,” DeFrancesco said.
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Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
