51s top River Cats in second-half opener
Terry Tiffee's ninth-inning sacrifice fly accounted for the decisive run Friday night as the 51s opened the second half of their Pacific Coast League season with a 6-5 victory over the Sacramento River Cats in West Sacramento, Calif.
The game was the opener of a four-game series pitting the PCL Pacific South Division's top two teams. With the win, Las Vegas (52-48) trimmed the first-place River Cats' lead to 61/2 games.
B.J. LaMura, making his first start in his fifth appearance for the 51s, gave up three earned runs on five hits and one walk in five innings. He struck out eight. Dwayne Pollok (7-3) earned the win with three innings of relief, and Mike Koplove pitched a scoreless ninth for his eighth save.
Las Vegas led 3-0 after 11/2 innings. Tiffee had an RBI single and John-Ford Griffin an RBI double in the first, and the 51s scored a run in the second on one of three errors by Sacramento (58-41).
The 51s also committed three errors. The final two came on the same seventh-inning pickoff play and set up Danny Putnam's two-out RBI single that tied the score at 5.
In the ninth, Ramon Martinez hit a one-out single, Jason Repko was hit by an 0-2 pitch, and Xavier Paul singled to set up Tiffee's sacrifice fly.
