Fresno’s 6-run inning dooms 51s

It took the Las Vegas 51s and Fresno Grizzlies more than three hours to complete nine innings on Tuesday night at Cashman Field.

But the fate of the game was sealed before that, as the Grizzlies pounced on Las Vegas for six runs in the second inning on their way to a 11-6 win in the series opener.

The 51s (12-21) fell behind when the first batter of the game, Tony Kemp, tripled off starter Chris Flexen and scored on the same play on a Ty Kelly throwing error.

Las Vegas took the lead in the bottom of the frame, scoring on two bases-loaded walks, but that lead lasted just minutes as Flexen ran into trouble in the second. He pitched just two innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits, though only two of them were earned.

“He had nothing to put them away,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “He lost command. He had deep counts and when he had a chance to make some pitches, he didn’t execute and a couple 0-2 pitches got hit hard. Every one of our pitchers, they definitely need to throw more strikes, more quality strikes.”

Flexen gave up a walk to lead off the second inning followed by two straight singles, tying the game.

He retired the next two batters, though, and looked like he might be able to limit the damage, but after another single, a Kelly fielding error extended the inning and allowed the go-ahead run to score.

“It was a tough play. We were in a big shift out there and Ty coming in running in hard, lost the grip,” DeFrancesco said. “It’s only one run at that time but then you’ve got to shut the inning down and it didn’t happen.”

Three more singles later and the Grizzlies (20-13) had put up a six-run inning.

Las Vegas never led from there.

The 51s scored a run in the bottom of the second inning on a Matt den Dekker home run and three more in the fifth with a Johnny Monell sacrifice fly and a Phillip Evans two-RBI double that cut the lead to just two, but they couldn’t get any closer than that in the loss.

“We’ve put up plenty of runs in a half (inning) so it’s not really a big issue when it’s so lopsided early,” Evans said. “You can’t really think you’ve lost a game in the second, third, fourth inning.”

That might not have been such a big issue if the 51s had capitalized on their chances earlier, especially in the first inning when Fresno starter Mike Hauschild walked four batters.

Hauschild walked seven in his 4 2/3-inning outing and DeFrancesco said he thought the 51s let him off the hook.

“Bases loaded, he walked in (two runs), we just didn’t get the big hit and I think that’s been the problem,” DeFrancesco said. “We’re just chasing too many balls out of the zone. Hauschild had a good splitfinger and changeup working today and we kept chasing it but for him to walk seven batters, he struck out five, we’ve just got to do a better job.”

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