Las Vegas 51s win second straight in Albuquerque
In the first few weeks of the season, wins have been few and far between for the 51s.
But with a 6-4 win over Albuquerque on Thursday night at Isotopes Park, Las Vegas has now won two straight games for the second time this season.
And there are some reasons to be optimistic for the 51s, who, after throwing their first shutout of the season on Wednesday and turning in a really solid defensive game, followed that up by clawing back from two deficits and getting five shutout innings from the bullpen.
“I thought our pitching was outstanding today,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “(Drew) Gagnon, he battled for the first couple innings. Six strikeouts, he did give up three home runs. The wind was blowing out to left field 25 miles an hour. … It was nice to see (Kevin) McGowan, (Kyle) Regnault, (Tim) Peterson and (Hansel) Robles, gets his first save, put up zeroes for five innings. We had no walks and nine strikeouts.”
The two teams traded home runs early with the Isotopes striking in the first on a Mike Tauchman blast and the 51s responding in the fourth with a Bryce Brentz solo shot.
But that tie was short-lived as the bulk of the scoring came in the middle innings.
The Isotopes (8-13) jumped out to another lead with home runs from Jordan Patterson and Drew Weeks and an RBI single from Daniel Castro in the fourth inning off of Gagnon.
“He was just kind of missing his spots. He was trying to go in. He left some balls out over the plate and with that wind, they got out of here in a hurry,” DeFrancesco said. “He kind of settled down. Just one bad inning for him. He competes out there very well.”
The 51s (7-14) responded immediately in the fifth inning. Albuquerque starter Jeff Hoffman loaded the bases with three straight walks before Gavin Cecchini made him pay with a bases-clearing double that tied the game up.
Cecchini came into the game with just two RBIs, but more than doubled that with one swing.
“That’s part of some of the problems early in the season with us trying to score with runners in scoring position, drive in runs — we need him and (David) Thompson,” DeFrancesco said. “We need everybody to drive in the runs but overall it’s good to see him get three RBIs.”
Las Vegas took its first lead later that inning as Cecchini scored on a throwing error by Albquerque third baseman Josh Fuentes.
The 51s added a run in the sixth inning on a Johnny Monell RBI single to left and McGowan (2 1/3), Regnault (2/3), Peterson (one) and Robles (one) combined for a scoreless five innings as the 51s won their second straight.
“I think the effort’s there. I think the guys are starting to feel a little more comfortable, some of the first-year guys here,” DeFrancesco said. “I think the biggest thing is getting our starting pitching in order and just giving our bullpen a chance to breathe. We’ve got good enough arms to match up in the bullpen, give our guys a chance, put them in good positions and I think that happened today.”
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Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
