51s finish road trip with 8-5 win over Tacoma

After scoring just four runs in their past 24 innings, the 51s finally broke through in the seventh inning Sunday with a six-run outburst.

That erased a four-run deficit and propelled the team to an 8-5 victory over the Tacoma Rainiers at Cheney Stadium.

The 51s (43-39) loaded the bases on a dropped-third strike and two walks to begin their comeback before Michael Conforto made a dent in Tacoma’s lead with a two-run single that chased reliever Paul Fry out of the game.

From there, Las Vegas scored four more runs on three singles, a bases loaded walk and a sacrifice fly to take a 7-5 lead.

One of those singles was third baseman T.J. Rivera’s first hit in three games since returning from a pulled hamstring, which kept him out of action for two weeks.

Rivera’s single tied the game and two batters later, Kevin Plawecki’s bases-loaded walk gave the 51s a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in the comeback victory.

“It’s a good offense. We’re second in the league in hitting for a reason,” manager Wally Backman said. “We got a lot of key hits. (Travis) Taijeron had a big game. Conforto had a big game. His swing is starting to come around the way I think we’ve seen in the past and we had some real quality at-bats in that seventh inning.”

Taijeron went 4-for-5 in the game, driving in the team’s first run in the sixth inning on his 13th home run of the season and the 51s added another run in the eighth on Conforto’s second hit of the game.

Sunday marked Conforto’s second two-hit game in seven games since he was sent down by the Mets to figure out his swing and Backman said the left fielder was close to doing just that.

“I’m really big on a hitter really knowing his own swing and those are the things that I try to teach players at the higher levels so they can make in-game adjustments and that’s exactly what Conforto did today,” Backman said. “His last two at-bats were really, really good at-bats. The swing, the swing plane, the set up, everything was really nice.”

Starter Gabriel Ynoa, who left in line for a loss, took a no-decision after giving up five runs — four earned — in 5 1/3 innings pitched.

Ynoa gave up a pair of runs in the fourth, one of which was unearned, and then three more in the sixth, two on back-to-back solo shots.

“He made two bad pitches and gave up back to back home runs,” Backman said. “Other than that, I thought he pitched okay. We didn’t give him any run support, early anyways.”

Paul Sewald came in in the sixth and allowed an inherited runner to score, but pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings of his own to pick up the win.

Josh Edgin followed with a scoreless eighth and Chasen Bradford pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with a pair of swinging strikeouts for his fifth save of the year.

“In the sixth inning, it was important to stop them from scoring any more runs and that’s exactly what Paulie came in and did,” Backman said. “And then Edgin came in … he did his job and Bradford was outstanding in the ninth and that’s the way I know those three guys can pitch.”

The 3 2/3 innings marked the first time the bullpen hadn’t been scored upon in a game since a June 19 win against Salt Lake.

“Sewald and Bradford and Edgin were key because they came in and shut them down when it was 5-1 and gave us a chance to come back,” Backman said. “And the offense came back.”

Betsy Helfand can be reached at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.