Spot starter Blake Taylor leads 51s to win over Tacoma
Blake Taylor was in Daytona Beach, Florida, with the St. Lucie Mets on Sunday morning when he got a call telling him he was needed in Las Vegas.
With the Mets calling up scheduled starter P.J. Conlon for their doubleheader, Taylor was summoned for a spot start with the 51s.
A day later, he was pitching in front of seven friends and family members in Triple-A — two levels up from Class-A Advanced — steering the 51s to a 10-2 victory over the Tacoma Rainiers at Cashman Field.
“This is probably my best start of the year, so I’m really happy that it was here,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who hails from Orange County, California, went six innings and gave up just one unearned run. He allowed three hits and struck out six Rainiers (27-25) in the outing.
“(I was) just trusting what my catcher (Jose Lobaton) was putting down,” Taylor said. “I know he’s got a lot of time in the show, so I was really just trusting him and trusting myself. ”
Taylor said he got more scouting reports on hitters than at St. Lucie so he had a feel of what he wanted to do. He ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth inning, but was able to limit the damage in that inning to just one run by striking out former All-Star Jayson Werth to strand the bases loaded. The only run he gave up came on a catcher interference call.
After Taylor’s outing ended, Joseph Zanghi, also added from St. Lucie on Monday, came on in relief and pitched three innings, giving up just a run on three hits.
“It’s not easy. These guys are coming up two levels and this is a very difficult field to pitch at and they boththrew strikes early. They made some pitches,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “We had a couple double plays. Very impressed with both of them.”
The pair was backed up by an offense that struck early. The 51s (21-31) scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a Patrick Kivlehan RBI double and Dominic Smith RBI hit.
They added another pair in the second thanks to Zach Borenstein’s ninth home run of the season and a Cody Asche RBI single. Three more runs scored in the third on a Jose Lobaton home run. Matt den Dekker also hit a blast.
Every hitter had at least one hit with den Dekker collecting three and Kevin Kaczmarski adding two of his own.
“Overall, confidence-wise the guys up and down the lineup, everybody got a hit today and I think that’s what we needed,” DeFrancesco said. “We need to try to string along a couple or three to four hits. I think Kaczmarski has brought a little spark to us. He’s hitting the ball well and playing good defense so hopefully he’ll continue.”
It was a welcome sight for the team, which snapped a four-game losing streak by taking complete control of the game in the first few innings.
“Offensively, it was good for a breakout,” DeFrancesco said. “It was good to see Borenstein get on the board again, hitting an opposite-field home run. We need him to get hot again. Den Dekker has probably been our most consistent hitter, giving us another home run today. Overall great job. Defense was solid and these guys, like I said, gave us a chance today.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
