Jhoan Urena’s 2nd straight walk-off sends 51s to 3rd straight victory
Jhoan Urena has only been in Las Vegas for a couple of weeks.
But it seems safe to say the first baseman has probably made a fan or two in his short stay, capping off Sunday with his second walk-off hit in as many games as Las Vegas beat Tacoma 2-1 at Cashman Field.
A day after slamming a walk-off home run, Urena came through with a bases-loaded hit in the ninth inning off Tacoma reliever Pat Light.
“They’re having fun. They’re coming to the ballpark expecting to win,” manager Pedro Lopez said after the team’s third straight win. “In the first half we were down and you never knew what you were going to get. In the second half, we were down and we battled, we battled, we grind out our at-bats all the way through the game and that’s all you can ask for.”
The 51s (55-86) saw some good at-bats in the ninth inning preceding Urena’s heroics as Josh Rodriguez doubled with two outs and Victor Cruzado and Jeff Glenn drew walks to keep the rally alive.
An inning earlier, Xorge Carrillo had tied up the game with a home run to left-center field off reliever Ernestro Frieri, awakening an offense that had been held quiet by Tacoma (66-75) starter Tyler Cloyd, who gave up just three hits in five scoreless innings.
“He did a good job. He really did. He mixed pitches well,” Lopez said. “Looking at the game, he pitched inside. He pitched away to hitters on both sides of the plate and kept us off balance. We just couldn’t get anything going. Thank God they took him out of there.”
He was mostly matched by Mitch Atkins, who threw six innings of his own and gave up just one run while striking out eight.
“Early on it was a pitchers’ duel so I was just trying to stay focused and keep it as close as I could,” Atkins said.
Atkins gave up his only run in the sixth on a Joey Wong single to right which plated Daniel Vogelbach.
He walked four, including two in the first inning, which hiked his pitch count up. Without those walks, Lopez said he might have stayed deeper in the game.
“In first inning, (he) struggled with command and then came out and made a good adjustment, started pounding the strike zone with everything, all his pitches, and then gave up that run in the sixth but overall I thought he did a really good job,” Lopez said.
Both Cloyd and Atkins have come a long way since the season started, beginning the year as teammates with the Somerset Patriots, an independent ball team, and ending it in a rare Pacific Coast League duel.
“It’s definitely cool to kind of pitch against somebody that you know, somebody that you played with,” Atkins said. “That was definitely giving me a little more motivation in the game (to) try not to lose to him. He threw the ball really well tonight. I’m just happy we came out on top.”
Up next
Who: Tacoma Rainiers at Las Vegas 51s
When: 12:05 p.m. Monday
Where: Cashman Field
Starters: TBD vs. Jonathan Albaladejo (1-4, 5.23 ERA)
Update
Monday will be the last game of the 51s season and the 51s will play their first home day game since June. It will be Smith’s Value Menu Monday.
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
