51s use walks to win in 13

Edward Paredes threw two strikes to Kevin Plawecki.

Then he plunked him.

After that, the Oklahoma City reliever couldn’t find the strike zone.

He threw four straight balls to Travis Taijeron and four more to Xorge Carrillo to load the bases.

Phillip Evans didn’t need to swing, either.

Four more balls to Evans forced in a run and gave the 51s a 3-2 victory in 13 innings.

“I was sitting on … a slider up in the zone. If he did throw it there then I was going to swing, if not, he had just walked two guys,” Evans said. “I think he was out of his rhythm. It worked out in our favor.”

About an hour and a half earlier, the 51s (43-69) had been three outs away from victory before Jamie Callahan surrendered a game-tying home run to Max Muncy, the first batter he saw in the ninth inning.

The 51s had owned a 2-1 before that, scoring in the fourth on a Dominic Smith RBI single and in the sixth on Travis Taijeron’s 22nd home run of the season.

Starter Jonathan Albaladejo pitched well enough to win, giving up just three hits in his eight innings.

“He works ahead. He mixes all his pitches,” manager Pedro Lopez said. “I think in the first inning was a little inconsistent but then after that he found his groove and basically did what we’ve been seeing in the previous two outings.He just pounded the strike zone with all pitches and was able to go deep in the game.”

After allowing a pair of hits and a sacrifice fly in the first inning, the Dodgers (58-52) managed just one more hit off Albaladejo in the game. He needed just 86 pitches to get through eight innings, 66 of them strikes.

Though his pitch count was relatively low, Albaladejo’s night ended after the eighth, making way for Callahan, who was recently acquired from the Red Sox in the Addison Reed trade.

“I wanted him to leave on a good note,” Lopez said of Albaladejo. “I thought that he threw the ball really, really good. I thought about sending him out. He didn’t have too many pitches but at the same time, he’s a 34-year-old. He’s probably the oldest guy that we’ve got here and I felt like why not bring in a fresh arm, give Callahan a little taste. Unfortunately, he made that mistake to Muncy, but after that I thought he did a good job.”

After that, the 51s got two scoreless innings apiece from Ben Rowen and Kyle Regnault before they finally pulled through with a victory, their fifth in their last six games.

“We’re playing well. We’re pitching well. I think we’re having good at-bats. We’re playing well defensively. I think as a whole it’s a good team effort,” Lopez said. “(It) would have been really bad, losing that game, but we didn’t. I felt like it could have gone either way. Both teams played well. Both teams pitched really well. We faced tough pitching tonight and still came up with a win.”

Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.