The dog days of August have not been kind to the Las Vegas 51s. The 51s were 7-8 so far in August, and 3-7 in their last 1o. As recently as the All-Star Break on July 13th, the 51s were 53-38, 15 games over .500 and 7.5 games ahead of second place El Paso. They went into Monday’s game at 66-56, only 10 games over .500 and their lead over El Paso had dwindled to 1.5 games. They were coming off a road trip in which they had just lost 3 of 4 to El Paso head to head.
At game time Monday night in Vegas, El Paso was already beating Nashville to draw a half game closer. So after dropping the first two games of the series against the Iowa Cubs, Monday’s matchup brought with it a sense of urgency.
Vegas sent righty Tim Stauffer to the mound against Iowa’s righty Dallas Beeler. The game got off to a rocky start. After Stauffer walked Cubs’ right fielder John Andreoli and center fielder Matt Szczur, he got second baseman Tommy La Stella to ground into a double play, moving Andreoli to third. Shortstop Javier Baez then placed a bunt which rolled slowly up the inside of the third baseline. Vegas third baseman Eric Campbell watched the ball stay well fair and lunged for it at the last minute, but having no play, the runner scored from third and the batter was safe at first. Stauffer retired Mike Baxter to prevent any further damage. Stauffer put up four scoreless innings after that. But in the 6th inning, he was hurt again by his defense as Campbell made two errors in the inning, adding to what was shaping up to be a nightmarish game for him. Despite only giving up 3 hits and striking out 11 over 8 innings, Stauffer left the game down 2-0.
To compound matters, the Vegas offense was unable to muster much against Beeler who scattered 6 hits over 7.1 innings. The 51s finally broke through in the 8th, when catcher Kevin Plawecki singled with one out. Pinch hitter Travis Taijeron worked a walk. Then with two out, second baseman Dilson Herrera beat out a grounder to Baez to load the bases. Center fielder Darrell Ceciliani singled to second to plate Plawecki, then La Stella threw the ball away allowing Taijeron to come home on the error while Ceciliani moved to second. Campbell walked to re-load the bases. Vegas left fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit the ball to deep short and seemingly beat the throw to first, but was called out. Nieuwenhuis responded by spiking his helmet and was ejected by first base umpire Alberto Ruiz. Manager Wally Backman came out to argue with Ruiz, and was run from the game himself despite a relatively tame display. So instead of plating the go-ahead run, the 51s were retired.
With the ejection of Nieuwenhuis, Campbell moved to left field and Daniel Muno came in to play third. Vic Black started the 9th with the game tied 2-2. After giving up a single to Baez, Black made a bad pick-off throw allowing Baez to go to third. He got ahead of Baxter 0-2, but on the next pitch Baxter walloped a triple to deep center. Baez scored, and then third baseman Mike Olt drew a walk. That was it for Black, who left the game without retiring a batter. Dario Alvarez came on to strike out left fielder Adron Chambers, but he hit the next batter with a pitch. Zack Thornton replaced Alvarez and got a fly ball to center which scored Baxter from third. Thornton then struck out Andreoli to get out of the inning.
Once again down by two, Reynolds led off the 9th with a walk. But two strikeouts later, Vegas was down to their last out. Taijeron drew another walk, and then Muno came up for his first at bat of the game. Muno doubled to left to drive in both Reynolds and Taijeron to tie the game again at 4-4. But Herrera struck out to send the game into extra innings.
Thornton continued on the mound and Szczur bunted at the ball which rolled outside the line in foul territory. Muno picked up the ball before it could curve into fair territory, but home plate umpire Billy Cunha ruled the ball fair. Now managing for the ejected Backman, Jack Voigt came out to argue with Cunha, and it looked like another ejection would result, but Voigt was allowed to return to the dugout. After a walk and a sacrifice bunt, Thornton walked Baxter intentionally to load the bases. He struck out Olt for the second out, then was replaced by Scott Rice. Rice struck out Chambers to end the inning, stranding three.
John Church took over in the 11th and pitched two scoreless innings to keep his team in the game. Then leading off in the bottom of the 12th, Muno came up for his second time since entering the game in the 9th. He launched a ball over the wall in left center for a dramatic game-winning walk-off home run, lifting his team to a much-needed win. After 12 exhausting innings of back and forth, errors, missed calls and a total of 10 pitching changes, Muno’s teammates greeted him at the plate, to celebrate the end of a 4-game losing streak, the maintenance of their lead in the division, or maybe just the happy ending of a very long night.
Vegas concludes their four game series with Iowa on Tuesday.
(photo by Cirilo Maldonado)