Arroyo’s fourth hit sends 51s to walk-off defeat
Rafael Montero played his role well.
But 51s bullpen, for the most part, could not.
The bullpen gave up seven runs in 4⅓ innings pitched as Sacramento shortstop Christian Arroyo hit a walk-off single in the 10th to send the 51s to a 7-6 loss to the River Cats at Raley Field on Sunday.
After Montero exited in the fifth inning with a four-run lead, three different relievers — Ben Rowen, Erik Goeddel and Kevin McGowan — each gave up two runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings respectively.
“I think Montero did a really good job,” manager Pedro Lopez said. “Unfortunately, Rowen and Goeddel made some bad pitches and got hurt but after that, McGowan did a really good job in the seventh inning when he came in to bail Goeddel out of that inning. He did a good job but just unfortunately in the eighth inning he went away from the game plan and got hurt.”
A close play at the plate in the bottom of the eighth gave the River Cats (6-11) their first lead of the day and prompted an argument from Lopez which led to his first ejection of the season.
“From where I was, I thought the glove was down. I kind of was surprised when he called him safe,” Lopez said. “I don’t think we lost the game there. We had plenty of chances also to score more runs and just unfortunately we couldn’t get that big hit when we needed to.”
Prior to the eighth, the 51s (9-9) had held the lead for almost the entire game, striking first with a sacrifice fly in the second from Desmond Jennings and adding on three runs in the fifth and one more in the seventh.
Montero, held to a pitch count after serving as a reliever for the Mets to begin the year, tossed five innings and gave up just two hits — both to Arroyo, one of the Giants’ top prospects. He struck out seven in his outing and didn’t give up a walk.
“I don’t think last year he was 100 percent,” Lopez said. “He wanted to go out there, he wanted to compete and the one thing I see now is he’s healthy. I was looking at the gun readings, 93, 94, 95 (mph). He did a really good job today. I think the main thing about Raffy is he’s healthy and I think he’s back to the guy that I saw a few years ago in (Double-A) Binghamton.”
After Montero’s exited and the bullpen had given up the lead, shortstop Amed Rosario tied the game with two outs in the ninth, tripling to drive in Matt Reynolds.
Chasen Bradford, who retired the last batter of the eighth, pitched a scoreless ninth and after the 51s couldn’t do anything with their opportunity in the top of the 10th, Sacramento capitalized.
Beck Wheeler walked the first batter of the inning and after a sacrifice bunt and a walk, Arroyo’s fourth hit of the day sent Las Vegas to a bad loss.
“Every game that you’re on top after seven — and it happened to us in Fresno — anytime you’re leading after seven and you lose the ballgame, those are the games at the end of the season, they’re going to come back and haunt you but we’ve got plenty of games to play,” Lopez said. “I think we’re going to make up for it. We’ve got the right attitude, we’ve got the right guys (and) we’ve just got to make sure that we keep on playing and try to send the right message.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
UP NEXT
Who: Las Vegas 51s at Sacramento River Cats
When: 7:05 p.m. Monday
Where: Raley Field, West Sacramento, California
Starters: Tyler Pill (0-0, 0.00) vs. Tyler Beede (1-0, 3.78 ERA)
NEXT FIVE
Tuesday: Las Vegas at Sacramento, 12:05 p.m.
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Albuquerque at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.
Friday: Albuquerque at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.
Saturday: Albuquerque at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.
UPDATE
Tyler Pill will make his second start of the season for the 51s on Monday. In his first, he went six innings and gave up four hits but no runs against Fresno. Prior to that, he made two starts at Double-A Binghamton and went 10⅓ innings without giving up an earned run.