Seth Lugo gives 51s quality start in 6-2 PCL victory

With a tired bullpen, the 51s needed more out of their starters than they had been getting.

Seth Lugo gave them exactly that Thursday.

Lugo tossed six innings — the longest a Las Vegas starter has gone all season — in a 6-2 victory over the Sacramento River Cats at Cashman Field.

The win caps the 51s’ rain-shortened homestand and sends them on the road with a 3-3 record.

“Tonight I knew I had to go out there and save some arms,” Lugo said. “I was trying to go as long as I could. I was really thinking about that.”

Lugo said he thought putting pressure on himself to shoulder some of that load was actually better for him.

“I attack the zone better and get early contact or put guys away quick instead of five-, six-pitch at-bats, so it actually helps me thinking like that,” Lugo said.

Lugo gave up seven runs — five earned — in his first start of the season, but turned in a quality start Thursday.

“I think he just located his stuff. He pitched ahead in the counts a lot more today,” Las Vegas manager Wally Backman said. “When you don’t walk guys, usually guys can make plays for you.”

After giving up 27 walks in the first five games, 51s pitchers didn’t allow one Thursday.

“They had no walks. They gave up 12 hits, but they only gave up two runs, so the pitching is supposed to be what we’ve seen tonight and hopefully it’s just the start of what’s to come for us,” Backman said.

Lugo gave up one run — a home run to Hak-Ju Lee — and reliever Jeff Walters gave up one on a bases-loaded double play.

And the 51s pitching staff got more than enough run support, scoring three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.

The 51s loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth and cleared them when Eric Campbell scored on a shallow sacrifice fly by Roger Bernadina and Gavin Cecchini singled with two outs.

An inning later, the 51s added another run on a T.J. Rivera single. Two batters later, pinch hitter Dilson Herrera grounded out to the pitcher, and Campbell, seeing the play was at first, aggressively broke for home for the team’s fifth run. Roger Bernadina’s double capped the team’s scoring.

Campbell’s two aggressive base-running plays paid off a night after the 51s stunted a rally with multiple mental mistakes on the bases.

“Eric Campbell is an old-school player,” Backman said. “He’ll do whatever it takes to score a run, to try to help you win a game.”

Backman held a team meeting Thursday to talk about poor base running, situational hitting, how many walks the staff had given up and the fact that the relievers had logged more innings than the starters. He seemed happy with the results.

“You always hope that they take something out of that,” Backman said. “You can’t have those meetings all the time, but you try to get a point across in a calm and collected way today like I did, and they played better.”

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