Las Vegas (22-10) 3, El Paso 1
Tyler Pill can finally breathe a sigh of relief as he picked up his win of the season in his 6th start spinning 7 innings of one-run ball. After giving up a run early in the game Pill retired the last 16 hitters he faced with 7 strike outs in that span. His final line was 7 innings, three hits, R, BB, eight strike outs and threw 98 pitches with 66 for strikes. Scott Rice got his 1st save working around two walks, lowering his ERA to 0.90 on the year and hasn’t allowed a run since April 12th. The 51’s were trailing 1-0 in the top of the 7th before Brooks Conrad broke through with a two-run 2B that scored Eric Campbell and Brandon Allen who both walked. Here is video of the go-ahead hit. After a Dan Rohlfing single Pill stepped up to the plate and helped himself out with a sac fly. Darrell Ceciliani continued his hot stretch with three hits and now is 15-33 over his last ten games with three stolen bases. He also had a Lagares like catch in center field coming in on a ball and diving head first to make the catch. Eric Campbell reached base three times collecting his 3rd double and his 4th steal of the year. Matt Reynolds was 0-4 with two K’s lowering his average to .306. Box Score. The 51’s will start a series hosting Sacramento tonight at 10:30 ET with no starter listed in the place of Noah Syndergaard.
Richmond 4, Binghamton (18-13) 3
Seth Lugo was very good again before letting the first two runners in the 7th inning reach and Matt Koch came in and let both of the inherited runners score to give the Squirrels a 4-3 lead. Lugo ended up receiving his first loss of the year allowing four runs on seven hits while striking out a season high eight hitters in 6 innings. Adam Kolarek had his 5th straight scoreless appearance spanning over 9.1 innings, giving up only four base runners over that span. the B’Mets only produced four hits with Gavin Cecchini getting the biggest one with his 2nd homerun of the season. He is now hitting .325/.381/.506, might be time for him to move up in the lineup and he has been hitting mostly 7th or 8th this year. Brandon Nimmo was 1-4 and Dustin Lawley was 1-1 with his 11th double and a walk before he left the game with an apparent injury after trying to break up a double play at 2nd base. Box Score. Rainy Lara (2-1, 3.04) is on the hill tonight as the B’Mets take on Richmond again at 6:35
Tampa 4, St. Lucie (13-18) 2
The big story last night for 8 innings at Tradition Field was the dominance by Robert Gsellman, unfortunately his start was all for not as Bobby Parnell returned to the mound and allowed three runs in the 9th inning to give Tampa a 4-2 lead. Parnell gave up the three runs on two hits, walk, two wild pitches, while hitting 90-92 MPH on the radar gun. On the same day Gsellman was named Florida State League pitcher of the week he put his name in the hat for this weeks already. Gsellman threw 8 great innings giving up just the lone run on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts and needed only 88 pitches. He now has a sparkling 1.46 ERA to go along with 0.86 WHIP with a 29/6 K/BB while only allowing 23 hits (zero HR’s) in his first 37 innings. Baseball Prospectus named Gsellman the pitcher of the day saying he rarely used his good curveball because he spent the night working on his 3rd best pitch the changeup. Phillip Evans made his season debut going 2-4 and scoring both of the Met runs. Dominic Smith showed some life at the dish going 1-3 with a walk and his first steal of the year. Michael Conforto was 0-4 but did walk for the first time in the last 13 games, his OPS is now under .800 (.796) for the first time this year. Maikis De La Cruz went 1-3, BB, RBI(15th), and stole two bases to give him four on the season. Amed Rosario and Jhoan Urena combined to go 0-8 with three K’s but Rosario did steal his 4th base. Box Score. St. Lucie looks to break their 6-game losing streak with Miller Diaz (0-2, 2.57) making the start against Tampa in a morning start at 10:30.
Savannah (12-18) 6, Hickory 3
The Sand Gnats scored three runs in the top of the 9th to go up 6-2 and to give reliever Ricky Knapp some much needed insurance runs as he gave up one run before striking out Michael De Leon who was the tying run. Knapp did pick up his 1st save of the season giving up just the one run while striking out four over his 3 innings. Scarlyn Reyes got the start pitching 6 solid innings giving up two runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out four while picking up his 2nd win of the season. Stefan Sabol collected three hits and three RBI’s including his 3rd HR off the year hitting out of the 4 hole while playing 1st base. Wuilmer Becerra was 1-4 with a walk and now has hit safely 15 out of his last 18 games. Jean Rodriguez was 3-5 with two runs scored boosting his slash line up to .298/.316/.412 for the year. Eudor Garcia was 1-5 with a RBI while Jonathan Johnson reached base three times smashing his 1st homerun of the year and extended his hit streak to 8 games. Box Score. Corey Oswalt (3-0, 4.76) starts in another morning game that starts at 11:00 against Hickory.
In injury news Victor Cruzado was put on the DL in St. Lucie with a wrist injury while Phillip Evans was activated to take his spot.
