On any given day in any of the dozens of Sports Books in Las Vegas, idle bettors might toss around ideas for unusual bets, just for fun. “How’s this for shot in the dark?” one might venture. “Three of the New York Mets minor league affiliates will be involved in walk-offs on Opening Night.” If you were gutsy enough to make such a wager, you would have watched the Las Vegas 51s Opening Night contest against the Fresno Grizzlies with interest after the Columbia Fireflies and the St. Lucie Mets each played games that were resolved in the bottom of the 9th inning.

It started off in a less than auspicious manner. Vegas starter righty Rafael Montero walked the first Fresno batter Tony Kemp. With Nolan Fontana batting, catcher Johnny Monell‘s errant pickoff attempt allowed Kemp to advance to third. After Montero struck out Fontana, an RBI groundout by A.J. Reed plated the first run. Montero struck out the last batter to end the inning.

Monell quickly got the chance to redeem himself when after a walk and a stolen base by third baseman (pro debut at that spot) Matt Reynolds, he collected his first hit and RBI of the season with a single to right center.

Montero settled in and tossed two scoreless innings before yielding another run in the fourth. Danny Worth hit a deep fly to straight away center which centerfielder Brandon Nimmo narrowly missed. Worth ended up on third. After a fine play by Monell to catch a high foul pop against the screen,  a sac fly to left by Colin Moran drove in Fresno’s second run. But Las Vegas drew even again in the bottom of the inning on a shot by Reynolds over the wall in right center.

Montero finished his first outing of the season with a scoreless fifth. In five innings, he gave up two runs (one earned) walking two and striking out five.  Lefty Dario Alvarez started the sixth inning but struggled, giving up two runs on a two-run home run by Worth in just one-third of an inning. Chase Huchingson came in to finish the inning, striking out the first batter he faced, but then he walked two, and uncorked a wild pitch to find the bases loaded. Fortunately Kemp opted to bunt resulting in an easy ground out to second base. Righty Jeff Walters and lefty Josh Smoker pitched a clean inning each to keep the Grizzlies off the board while Vegas generated some offense. Travis Taijeron and Roger Bernadina homered to left in consecutive innings to get the 51s even once again. Chase Bradford gave up two singles in the ninth, but his defense turned in a nice 5-4-3 double play behind him to end the threat.

In the bottom of the ninth with the game tied 4-4, Reynolds led off with a single. After Monell’s fielder’s choice erased Reynolds, Taijeron struck out on a pitch in the dirt. Now with two down, Fresno decided to bring in a new pitcher to face first baseman Marc Krauss. Krauss then sent a laser over the center field wall to win the game in walk-off style. The team waited for Krauss at home plate and then celebrated an exciting 6-4 Opening Night win. Little did they know at the time, they weren’t the only walk-off winners this night.

The 51s scored all but one of their six runs on home runs by Reynolds, Taijeron, Bernadina and Krauss. Besides his home run, Reynolds was 2-3 with a walk and two runs scored. Las Vegas pitchers struck out 10 in the game, but walked seven.

Top Performers: Montero with a much needed strong five innings of work (two earned runs, five K’s) and was hitting 93 MPH with his fastball.  Smoker made his Triple-A debut in the 8th inning, retired all three batters he faced with two strikeouts.

Krauss had the big hit but Reynolds was the overall star with the bat going 2 for 3 with a walk, two runs scored, solo homer, and a stolen base. Box Score

Vegas continues the four-game set against Fresno on Friday at 10:05 PM ET and will send Seth Lugo to the mound.

Here you can read about the rest of the Mets minor league Opening Day including the Amed Rosario walk-off homer!

(First and last photos by Cirilo Maldonado. Others by Jennifer Nieves)