Mistakes cost 51s in 6-1 PCL loss to River Cats

One of baseball’s most well-known unwritten rules cautions players to never make the first or third out of the inning at third base.

The 51s didn’t quite manage to do both in one inning, but they did make two consecutive outs at third in the fourth inning, stunting a rally on their way to a 6-1 loss Wednesday night at Cashman Field.

With one out in the inning and trailing 3-0, Las Vegas’ Marc Krauss broke from second to third on a ground ball to short and was easily out.

One batter later, after Danny Muno was hit by a pitch, reliever Chase Huchingson dropped a single into center field and Muno was thrown out trying to go from first to third.

“We cost ourselves a game last night because of physical mistakes, and today we cost ourselves a chance to get back into a game because of the mental mistakes running the bases,” 51s manager Wally Backman said.

T.J. Rivera, who was on second base to start the play, appeared to have crossed home plate before Muno was thrown out at third, but the run was called off, prompting a brief argument from Backman.

“I just told (home plate umpire Alberto Ruiz) he missed it. I really didn’t think it was that close,” Backman said. “On the other side of that, we made all those base-running mistakes in that fourth inning, and even T.J. (who) was scoring, he started to slow down. You’ve got to run through home plate, and then there would have been no decision whatsoever.”

After that, they managed just one run against the River Cats, scoring when Rivera doubled in Travis Taijeron in the sixth inning.

The 51s stranded 11 runners on base — three fewer than Sacramento — but the River Cats converted some of their opportunities into runs, unlike the 51s.

Las Vegas starter Stolmy Pimentel pitched through trouble in the first and second innings, but the River Cats finally broke through in the third with three straight hits to begin the inning en route to three runs.

They chased Pimentel after 2 2/3 innings, and Huchingson tossed 3 1/3 innings, helping preserve a bullpen that had to eat up 5 1/3 innings Tuesday.

“If I (didn’t) bring (Dario Alvarez in in the ninth), I was going to bring in Ty Kelly, a position player to pitch, if that tells you how exhausted after five games,” Backman said. “The bullpen’s pitched more innings than the starters have.”

Just two starters — Rafael Montero and Gabriel Ynoa —tossed five innings through the first turn of the rotation, and Montero isn’t with the 51s anymore, called up by the New York Mets earlier in the week.

All the starters were looking at a pitch count around 85 in their first game except for Sean Gilmartin, who was around 65, but ineffectiveness more than pitch counts has caused strain on the bullpen.

“When you give a guy an opportunity to throw 85 pitches, you should be, if you have a relatively decent game, you’re going to be into the sixth and possibly into the seventh inning, and that just hasn’t happened,” Backman.

As a result, the bullpen is exhausted with five relievers making three appearances in five games and one — Alvarez — pitching in four.

“We have to pitch better. We have to run the bases better. We’ve got to catch the ball better,” Backman said.

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