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MMN Recap: Two Position Players Pitch in Vegas

By Daniel Muras

April 21, 2018 No comments

David Thompson/Photo by Jennifer Nieves

Fresno (12-4) 12, Las Vegas (5-11) 4   Box Score

Well, this certainly was a strange one. The 51s got on the board in the second with an Evans home run, but wouldn’t score again until the eighth when Kelly singled in Cecchini. Brentz hit a two-run homer later in the inning and has now homered in three straight games after a really bad start to his season. But that’s all the 51s could muster up in what was an ugly game all around.

Left fielder Zach Borenstein got ejected after grounding out in the seventh, so pitcher Kevin McGowan actually came in for him to play left field for the final two innings in an effort to save the already taxed bullpen, while outfielder Matt den Dekker made his second pitching appearance of the season. In what was some very peculiar lineup shuffling near the end, Evans also got to catch the ninth inning. It was his first professional appearance at catcher aside from his limited time there in this year’s recent Spring Training.

After working a perfect first, the deceptive lefty Conlon struggled through two very rough innings in which he allowed seven runs on eight hits and two walks. Secrest, who was just activated from the disabled list, got tagged for five runs and could not get through the inning. Regnault, who is off to an iffy start this year, came in and was very effective in stopping the bleeding, and the 51s would go the rest of the night without allowing a run. Peterson continued to dominate, and Robles pitched a perfect inning in his first Triple-A appearance of the year.

Despite only being sixteen games into the season, both den Dekker and Plaia were already asked to each make their second pitching appearance of the season. They each pitched a scoreless inning and have combined for four scoreless innings of work this year. As mentioned earlier, they put McGowan in left field after Borenstein was ejected to save the arms of McGowan and all the other guys in that bullpen. It was a strange but effective managerial strategy that prevented the bullpen from being completely gassed going forward.

Binghamton (5-7) 4, Erie (5-9) 1  Box Score

Mazeika entered the gave with just a .411 OPS on the season, but he managed to improve that number quite a bit with a big three-hit game that included a 5th inning solo home run. A Tebow single in the second inning brought home Binghamton’s first two runs of the game. Alonso added an insurance run in the seventh inning with an RBI single. His OPS is still comfortably over 1.000 on the season.

Crismatt continued his dominant start to the season by striking out nine in six innings and giving up just one unearned run. Through his first three starts, he has a 21:3 K:BB in 16.2 innings pitched. It has been a rough start to the season for Zamora, but he had a very good outing in relief of Crismatt in this game. Bashlor still has not allowed a single run in 21.1 Double-A innings, dating back to last season.

Jupiter (12-3) 5, St. Lucie (7-7) 2  Box Score

St. Lucie’s offense struggled quite a bit in the loss. The team could only get five players on base over the course of the entire game and all baserunners reached on singles. The Mets scored both of their runs in the 5th inning when a Paez single drove home Carpio and Anthony Dimino.

After two good starts to  begin the 2018 season, Gonzalez labored through four innings in this start as he allowed nine baserunners and threw 84 pitches. Atkins came out of the bullpen and threw three solid innings. McIlraith has seemed to make a smooth transition to the bullpen after working exclusively as a starter throughout his minor league career, He has allowed just one earned run through his first five appearances of the season.

Columbia (10-5) 6, Hickory (5-9) 3  Box Score

The Fireflies offense had a very solid night, scoring six runs on nine hits and having more walks than strikeouts (6 walks to 5 strikeouts). Every player in the lineup reached base at least one time. Sanchez made his season debut after missing the entire second half of last season with a hand injury.

Cavallaro continues to impress in the Columbia rotation as he has no allowed no mre than two earned runs and pitched at least six innings in each of his first three starts. Payne has a 13:1 K:BB ratio so far in 2018. After a very rough start to his season, Villines seems to have settled into the new level and has thrown 6.1 scoreless innings with a 12:0 K:BB ratio in his last four appearances.

The Las Vegas 51s portion of the recap was done by Mojo Hill.

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Written by Daniel Muras

I fell in love with the Mets during the 2006 playoff run and became obsessed with the Mets minor league system while looking for a brighter future during the 2009-2014 era. I hope to provide interesting analysis of the minors and am excited to have the opportunity to write for MMO and MMN.

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