Big inning carries 51s to win over El Paso
The 51s had a couple five-run innings go for naught last week against El Paso in eventual losses.
Not Tuesday.
The 51s again put up a five spot against El Paso and this time, they didn’t let their lead slip away en route to a 6-4 victory over the Chihuahuas at Cashman Field.
The 51s used that five-run inning to help erase an early deficit.
Starter Seth Lugo found himself in trouble almost immediately after giving up a single and double to the first two batters of the game.
“I thought I made really good pitches to both of them so I kind of just tried to clear it out of my head,” Lugo said. “I figured one of them was probably going to score so I tried not to do too much and just tried to stay in attack mode and get some quick outs.”
He did that, allowing just one run in the inning, an inning that could have been much worse.
Lugo gave up a couple more runs in the third and one more in the sixth but of his four runs, only two were earned because of a pair of errors made by second baseman Dilson Herrera.
“We made the mistakes,” manager Wally Backman said. “(Lugo) was able to overcome the mistakes so to speak and hold them to minimal damage so I thought that was big for him.”
And while he was doing that, his offense came through behind him, batting around in the third against El Paso starter Carlos Pimentel.
The 51s scored on back-to-back singles from Brandon Nimmo and T.J. Rivera before Travis Taijeron hit a deep drive to center off the wall for a two-run triple giving them their first lead of the night.
Roger Bernadina followed that up with a double, driving him in.
“We got some key hits, some timely hits,” Backman said.
That, and they did a better job halting El Paso immediately after taking the lead — and momentum — back.
The last time around, Lugo gave up four runs to the Chihuahuas right after the 51s scored five.
Tuesday, he was able to keep El Paso quiet for another few innings.
“Hitting’s contagious so a lot of times you’ll see nobody scoring and then one team scores a few runs and the next half inning, the other team’s going to come in and score, so I just tried to stay aggressive and work down in the zone because I knew they were going to be up there swinging trying to get some momentum back,” Lugo said.
He lasted seven innings in his longest outing of the season and picked up his third win.
“(Six innings) was my longest (start) before now, so (I was) definitely trying to pitch more in the zone to get some early contact,” Lugo said.
The 51s have seen some better — and longer — performances recently from their starters, helping preserve a bullpen that has many members near the top of the Pacific Coast League in appearances.
Though Tuesday was Lugo’s longest outing innings-wise, he only needed 89 pitches to get there and Backman said he probably could have gone back out if need be.
But with a relatively well-rested bullpen, there was no need, and after scoreless inning from relievers Zach Thornton and Paul Sewald, the 51s ran their winning streak up to four games.
“The way the game was going, I didn’t want to see the kid lose the game,” Backman said. “I didn’t want him to get a chance to where he could.”
Betsy Helfand can be reached at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @BetsyHelfand
