Salt Lake 4, Las Vegas 3

They had their chances… they had their chances. The 51s went 3-for-14 with RISP today with chances to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth and ninth en route to losing, 4-3, and finding themselves eliminated at the hands of Salt Lake. The 51s had a pretty solid season and Wally Backman should be given a hell of a lot of credit for working with a ridiculous amount of moving parts and sub-par players.

Anyway, Aaron Harang turned in a quality start for the 51s with six innings of work and three runs allowed, but it was the fourth run that crossed the plate in the seventh against Justin Hampson, inherited from Robert Carson, that was the deal breaker. Carson actually has been responsible for every game-winning run against the 51s in this series… ouch.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis got the 51s started early with another solo home run, but the offense struggled to get the big hit today. A line-drive RBI double by Mike Baxter in the 8th set the 51s up to try and tie by driving him in, but it never came to fruition.

On the flip side, Jeff Walters did make an impressive Triple-A debut with 1.2 scoreless innings and three strikeouts.

Savannah, all eyes are on you…

Key Stats

Kirk Nieuwenhuis: 2-for-5, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R

Ruben Tejada: 1-for-3, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 R, 1 SB

Mike Baxter: 2-for-3, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 RBI

Aaron Harang: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 3 ER, 6 K

Jeff Walters: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 3 K

Justin Hampson: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1-1 inherited runners scored