Las Vegas 51s start strong, falter in 7-2 loss to Iowa
If Friday’s game against the Iowa Cubs could have ended after the second inning, that would have been just fine for the Las Vegas 51s.
Not many good things happened from the third inning onward, and it got a lot worse as the 51s lost 7-2 at Principal Park.
“We couldn’t capitalize when we got guys on base and couldn’t get the big hits tonight,” 51s manager Wally Backman said.
It started off well enough for Backman’s squad. Travis Taijeron hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the first and pitcher Sean Gilmartin had an RBI groundout in the second. Unfortunately for the 51s, the Cubs answered their first-inning run with two of their own.
From that point forward, it was all Iowa. A run in the third, three in the fifth, one in the seventh and that was all she wrote.
The 51s did not manage another run all night, and James Buchanan is to blame for that. The Iowa righty settled in after a rough first two innings and finished seven strong, allowing just the two runs and six hits while striking out four.
On the rubber for the visitors, Gilmartin had an uncharacteristically poor outing. The 26-year-old lefty went five innings and allowed six runs. The last time he failed to pitch at least into the sixth inning was back on May 24, a span of eight starts.
“He just wasn’t very sharp tonight,” Backman said. “He’s been real consistent when he’s gone out there for us and tonight he was just inconsistent in the strike zone, left too many balls over the plate.”
He did manage to knock in the 51s’ second run of the game. With Darin Gorski’s single and run scored in Thursday’s game, Las Vegas pitchers have started the second half of the season off on the right foot at the plate. Gilmartin is hitting .273 on the season.
Despite only plating two runs, the 51s offense still showed its muscle at the plate. Michael Conforto, Gavin Cecchini and Roger Bernadina each had a pair of hits and Taijeron and Dilson Herrera were the only position player starters to not record a hit.
Overall, nine hits are nice but eight men left on base are not. And 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position is even worse, and looking at that it’s pretty easy to see why the 51s didn’t collect the win Friday night.
“They’re not going to be perfect every night,” Backman said. “The offense has been real solid all year long and tonight you just have to tip your hat to the pitcher that pitched against us tonight.”
Justin Emerson can be reached at jemerson@reviewjournal.com. Follow on Twitter:@J15Emerson
Up next
Who: Las Vegas 51s at Iowa Cubs
When: 5:08 p.m. Saturday
Where: Principal Park, Des Moines, Iowa
Starters: Robert Gsellman (0-2, 15.00 ERA) vs. Pierce Johnson (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Next five
Sunday: Las Vegas at Iowa, 11:08 a.m.
Monday: Las Vegas at Omaha, 5:05 p.m.
Tuesday: Las Vegas at Omaha, 10:05 a.m.
Wednesday: Las Vegas at Omaha, 5:05 p.m.
Thursday: Las Vegas at Omaha, 5:05 p.m.
Update
The Las Vegas 51s assigned right-handed pitcher Rafael Montero to Double-A Binghamton on Thursday. Montero hasstruggled mightily of late, allowing at least four earned runs in each of his last eight starts including 10 runs in threeinnings in his last start on July 6. His last quality start was May 25.
