The Las Vegas 51s and Albuquerque Isotopes began a five-game series at Cashman Field Thursday night with Noah Syndergaard on the mound. Syndergaard brought the heat, consistently hitting 97 on the radar gun, but he was both lifted and let down by his defense. After a 1-2-3 first, Syndergaard gave up a hard struck single to Isotopes’ first baseman Clint Robinson. Brock Peterson then hit a ball to deep left field which was dropped by left fielder Cesar Puello, allowing Robinson to reach third as Peterson went to second.
The next batter, Alex Guerrero reached on a grounder to third as Josh Satin threw a strike to catcher Kevin Plawecki to nail Robinson at home. But a run scored when Jamie Romak turned around a fastball, which even though it broke his bat, it hit off of Syndergaard and he couldn’t recover in time to get an out on the play. Syndergaard then got former Met Mike Baxter to hit into a double play, limiting the damage to one run.
But Syndergaard started the third by walking Albuquerque pitcher Jeff Bennett. After striking out shortstop Darwin Barney, he gave up a single to center fielder Joc Pederson. Catcher Tim Federowicz popped out to second, but then Syndergaard walked Robinson to load the bases. Peterson doubled to plate two runs, but Puello made an accurate relay to shortstop Matt Reynolds who cut down Robinson at the plate to retire the side.
Syndergaard left behind 4-2 after five innings, giving up four runs( two earned) on seven hits, walking four and striking out four. Erik Goeddel, Jack Leathersich and Miguel Socolovich each combined to give up two more runs as the Isotopes rapped out 15 total hits in the game. Zack Thornton pitched a scoreless 8th.
The 51s offense only managed two runs despite two doubles from center fielder Matt den Dekker and two hits each from Reynolds and Puello. Timely hitting was lacking as Las Vegas hit into two double plays. The defense was uneven as they made two errors, and dropped a ball which was scored a hit, while throwing out three runners at the plate.
In the second game of the series on Friday night, trouble came early as 51s starter John Lannan gave up four runs over the first two innings including home runs to Pederson and Federowicz in the first. Las Vegas pulled even with two-run homers from Andrew Brown and Satin in the first and fourth innings respectively.
Brown’s home run followed a booming triple to center by first baseman Allan Dykstra. Dykstra had entered the game pinch hitting for center fielder den Dekker who had been called up by the Mets.
Lannan left after four innings giving up four runs on nine hits. Ryan Reid pitched a scoreless fifth. Then Vegas threatened to pull ahead in the bottom of the inning when Matt Reynolds singled and Dykstra doubled, but Reynolds was thrown out at home.
With one out in the sixth, Reid walked Barney, who went first to third on a single by Pederson and scored on a sacrifice fly by Federowicz. Reid walked Peterson and with Romak batting, Pederson stole third and then scored when catcher Taylor Teagarden threw the ball into left field.
In the bottom of the sixth, Satin was ejected after arguing a questionable third strike called by home plate umpire Greg Stanzak. Manager Wally Backman came out to argue on Satin’s behalf, and was also ejected.
After John Church and Chase Bradford each pitched a scoreless inning, the 51s came roaring back in the bottom of the eighth. After three consecutive no-out singles by Reynolds, Dykstra and Brown loaded the bases, Allen hit a high pop-up to shallow right which Romak failed to catch allowing Reynolds to score.
Pinch-hitter Plawecki grounded to third baseman Erisbel Arruebarrena who threw home to force out Dykstra. With the bases still loaded, Teagarden singled to center scoring Brown, and Anthony Seratelli came up with an RBI groundout to short plating Allen. Daniel Muno, who had entered the game at third base to replace the ejected Satin, doubled in Plawecki and Seratelli.
Bradford was the winning pitcher as Gonzalez Germen pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the save and complete the rollicking comeback.
In Saturday night’s contest, Cory Mazzoni started for Vegas and cruised through five innings of shutout ball. The 51s offense provided him with a 3-0 lead via an RBI single by Puello in the third inning and a two-run home run by Plawecki in the fourth.
Mazzoni got into some trouble in the 6th giving up a one out single to Federowicz, and a double to first baseman Robinson. Right fielder Romak then doubled in both runners. Mazzoni got Guerrero to ground out to third before he was relieved by Thornton who retired the side by striking out short stop Arruebarreno.
With the lead now cut to one run, Vegas came back with three runs in the bottom of the sixth. A series of ill-fated defensive switches and substitutions proved costly for the Isotopes. Starter Chris Reed walked Satin. Brown reached on an error by short stop Carlos Triunfel who had just moved from third base. And Allen moved both runners over with a ground out. Reed was relived by pitcher Red Patterson who got Plawecki to pop up, but then walked Muno to load the bases and then Seratelli to force in a run. Pinch hitter Dykstra then dunked a single into center field to plate both Brown and Muno.
In the seventh, new pitcher Drew Carpenter saw Brown reach on an error for the second time, this time by Romak who had moved from right field to third base, but was able to prevent any further damage.
In the 8th, center fielder Pederson, who had narrowly missed a massive home run to right field in the 6th, hit one out to right center off reliever Goeddel to complete the scoring for Albuquerque. The 51s scored two more in the bottom of the inning due to the wildness of new pitcher Josh Ravin and a couple more gift errors. After Muno walked, Ravin threw the ball away on an attempted pick off at first. Muno was able to advance all the way to third. Ravin then walked Seratelli and pinch hitter Cory Vaughn. After a strikeout of Puello, Reynolds hit a ball deep enough to be a sac fly, but it was dropped by right fielder Baxter who had also come in as a defensive replacement in the sixth. Muno and Seratelli both scored. Colt Hynes, the fifth pitcher for the Isotopes, stopped the bleeding by striking out Satin and Brown.
Las Vegas used four pitchers, Mazzoni followed by Thornton, then Goeddel, and finally Leathersich pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the win. Mazzoni notched his third win with the 51s. After pitching in Binghamton for all of 2013, Mazzoni started 2014 with the Gulf Coast Mets after suffering a right lat-muscle strain in spring training. He made his way back up through the Mets system, moving to St. Lucie, and Binghamton before finally being promoted to Vegas in July.
In the fourth game of the series on Sunday afternoon, the 51s came back from an early 2-0 deficit to score six in the bottom of the fifth, and held on to win 7-5. Logan Verrett pitched seven innings, giving up only two runs on four hits, logging his team-leading tenth win. Reynolds had three hits, bringing his average up to .337, and scored two runs, and Teagarden had two hits including a two-run home run.
The 51s have already clinched the series win, but they play game number five with the Isotopes on Monday.
