Las Vegas Bullpen Can't Handle The Heat, Falls to Tacoma 5-3

Tacoma 5, Las Vegas 3

As has been the case all season for the major league level of the Mets franchise, the Las Vegas 51s bullpen was unable to maintain a slim lead as they went on to fall to the Tacoma Rainiers 5-3.

The well traveled Chris Schwinden got the nod for the 51s who were attempting to avoid a four-game sweep from the Rainiers. Schwinden had gotten off to a horrible beginning to the year, however managed to settle down in his previous outing last Saturday against Colorado. Building off of last week’s success, Schwinden lasted five innings allowing two runs on three hits while walking five and punching out four. In just the second at-bat of the game, Nick Franklin put a drive into one to right field that cleared the fence, handing Tacoma an early one-run lead. Then in the third, Eric Thames came up to bat and plated Franklin in on a two-out RBI double, making it 2-0 Rainiers. Schwinden would be lifted after the fifth for Gonzalez Germen, and would end the day with a no-decision, however managed to lower his ERA to 6.08 on the year.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Las Vegas lineup started to come to life as the backstop Kai Gronauer slapped a one-out double to Thames, followed up quickly by a grounder that found it’s way to Tacoma’s right fielder once again. With runners on second and third, Josh Satin kept the theme of making Eric Thames run going as he drove a hot shot to the 26-year old, scoring two to tie up the game at two a piece.

Come the bottom of the sixth, Andrew Brown got on base to start off the inning after getting plunked by pitcher Tyler Burgoon. Burgoon then surrendered a knock to Wilmer Flores to set the table for Jamie Hoffmann. Hoffmann rolled over one to and grounded to short, forcing Flores out at second but more importantly scoring Brown to hand Vegas a 3-2 advantage.

The lead however, was short lived. After hurling a scoreless sixth, Gonzalez came out for his second inning of work, with disastrous results. It began with a miscue from Kirk Nieuwenhuis on a Alex Liddi fly ball, putting him in scoring position with no outs. Gonzalez then threw one to the backstop, allowing Liddi to move just 90 feet away from tying the game on the wild pitch. Stefen Romero would serve up a blooper to center to score Liddi and even things up at three. Later in the inning, Carlos Triunfel doubled down the left field line to score Romero, handing the Rainiers the lead for good.

Tacoma would plate an insurance run on a sac fly in the top of the ninth and go on to complete the four game sweep, besting the 51s by a score of 5-3. Las Vegas has now fallen to 10-12 on the year and last place in the PCL Pacific Southern Division.