; ;

MMN Recap: Alonso Homers Again, Oswalt Dominates

By Daniel Muras

April 14, 2018 No comments

Photo by Ed Delany

Las Vegas (3-6) 7, El Paso (5-4) 1 Box Score

The 51s’ offense scored seven runs on ten hits in a very strong showing against El Paso. Four of the seven runs came in the ninth inning, putting the game out of reach. Kelly continued his dominance of the PCL and, for a guy who never hit for much power, he now has nine extra base hits (four of which were home runs) through eight games. Smith reached base twice in this game and has been hitting for power, but has struck out at a rate above his career norms early on in 2018

Three days after his very brief call up to the majors, Oswalt pitched an excellent game for the 51s. He pitched five scoreless innings and, while the three walks ran up his pitch count to 91 pitches, it was still a very impressive game for the young righty. Corey Taylor made his Triple-A debut and pitched solidly over his two innings of work.

Portland (2-5) 4, Binghamton (3-4) 2  Box Score

The Rumble Ponies struggled to get anything going offensively as they scored just two runs on six hits in the loss. Both runs were scored in the third inning on an Alonso two run home run. It’s an extremely small sample size of seven games, but Alonso already has three home runs and his 1.288 OPS stands out on a team that has just a .586 OPS as a whole early in the season. Jeff McNeil returned from a short stint on the disabled list and went 0-for-3.

Church started the game and struggled to put hitters away, allowing nine baserunners and striking out nobody in four innings of work. Binghamton’s outstanding bullpen continued its dominance with Bautista and McGeorge combining for seven strikeouts over four scoreless innings. Bautista has struck out 11 batters without walking a single batter in 2018.

St. Lucie (5-4) 2, Dunedin (4-5) 1  Box Score

St. Lucie’s offense could only push across two runs on five hits, but, thanks to excellent pitching, the two runs were enough for the victory. Both runs were scored in the fifth inning, with a Cone single driving home Luis Carpio and a Jacob Zanon sacrifice fly bringing home Strom.

After a disastrous first start of the season, in which he was knocked out of the game after the first inning, Llanes had a very impressive start. He allowed just a single run and needed only 67 pitches to get through six innings. Ryan continues to impress out of the bullpen and hasn’t allowed a run in his last 11 appearances, dating back to last season.

Asheville (2-7) 5, Columbia (5-4) 1  Box Score

The Fireflies scattered six singles in this game and could score only a single run. In the sixth inning, after stealing second base, Raphael Gladu was singled home by Vasquez to put the team’s sole run on the board. Blake Tiberi has cooled off a bit from his very hot start and has just one hit in his last 10 at bats with four strikeouts.

Simon made the start and took the loss yet again, but pitched quite well for the second straight start. Where as last time he received the loss due to lack of run support, this time his start was plagued by poor defense, with two errors leading to two unearned runs and a high pitch count.

Still, Simon’s last two outings are very encouraging, as he has struck out a batter per inning and has walked just two batters over the two starts. For a talented, but raw pitcher who has had issues with walks early in his career, these are promising signs that he may be starting to put it all together this season.