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Jonathan Albaladejo tosses complete game as 51s complete season

Armed with two of the New York Mets’ top prospects — Amed Rosario and Dominic Smith — and a collection of talented returners, the 51s looked like they would feature a potent offense this year and be highly competitive in the Pacific Coast League.

Things didn’t turn out as planned.

They didn’t turn out as planned in New York, either, with a collection of injuries eventually depleting the Las Vegas roster and contributing to some of the woes in Las Vegas.

Monday, the 51s closed out their season with a 4-1 victory over Tacoma, ending a disappointing 2017 in which the 51s fell just short of setting a franchise record for losses.

With a complete game from starter Jonathan Albaladejo, the 51s were able to finish 56-86.

The 51s finished 17½ games behind first-place El Paso and had the worst record in the Pacific Coast League. Their .394 winning percentage was tied for second worst in all of Triple-A baseball.

Their offense finished near the middle of the pack while the pitching staff was near the very bottom of the PCL.

In their last game of the season, though, the pitching held strong with Albaladejo tossing the team’s first complete game and Las Vegas completing its first four-game sweep of the season. He gave up just one run on six hits in his outing.

“I was attacking the strike zone and they were swinging early,” Albaladejo said. “My sinker was working really well in the first three innings.

“Then they started looking for it. … I started mixing it up. I started throwing my slider a little more and thank God it was really good today.”

That one run came in the fourth inning as he gave up four consecutive hits with Andrew Aplin’s single driving in a run and tying the game. He avoided further trouble, though, getting Tacoma (66-76) shortstop Eugene Helder to hit into an inning-ending double play.

“I know it’s the last game of the season, I know they’re swinging early but I thought that he did a really good job locating his pitches down in the strike zone,” manager Pedro Lopez said. “His command was good. everything was down in the zone and that allowed him to get ground balls left and right.”

Las Vegas had jumped out to a lead in the second inning on an RBI single from catcher Jeff Glenn.

After Albaladejo surrendered the lead in the fourth, the 51s responded with two runs on Cody Decker’s eighth home run of the year. They added an insurance run in the eighth inning as Jayce Boyd singled to center to drive in Phillip Evans.

It was more than enough support for Albaladejo, who mowed down 15 of the last 16 batters he faced.

“If I’m correct, I believe this is our first sweep on the whole year. It was the perfect way to end up the year — last series, first sweep,” Albaladejo said. “Not that the result that we all want.

”We obviously want to be in the playoffs and have a better year. But if we’re going to go home, I think this is a good way to go home.”

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

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