51s fall 9-2 to Albuquerque Isotopes

ALBUQUERQUE — The lights went out twice for nearly 40 on the 51s and Isotopes in the fifth inning on Sunday.

And when they came back on, what the 51s saw was ugly.

Already trailing, things got worse for the 51s after the delays and they eventually fell 9-2 at Isotopes Park.

Center fielder Roger Bernadina was at the plate with a runner on second when all four light banks went off for the first time. The delay was 22 minutes long.

At one point, it started raining, though not hard. And after Bernadina stepped back in the batter’s box and saw a couple pitches, two of the four banks went out again, causing a 16-minute delay.

“I’ve never had that before,” Bernadina said. “At the same time, you’ve got to get yourself ready and the lights went off, it’s just so weird and then I faced a different pitcher in the same AB. It was weird.”

Bernadina wound up striking out and then the lengthy delays forced starter Gabriel Ynoa out of the game.

Ynoa had given up four runs — two earned — but he had thrown just 54 pitches and manager Wally Backman said he would have come back out if there were just one delay.

Ynoa had given up a solo shot to Jordan Patterson in the third inning immediately after picking off Mike Tauchman. But though he gave up just the one in the third, three more followed the next inning, two thanks in part to an error.

The 51s made four errors on the night, two from second baseman L.J. Mazzilli, who was recently called up from Double-A Binghamton. Despite the rough night in the field, he finished 4-for-5 at the plate.

“He needs work there. I think he has good hands. His actions are good,” Backman said. “(He’s) somebody that I will gladly work with to try to get him better because I believe the times that I’ve seen him, I believe his bat plays in the big leagues. I really believe that.”

Las Vegas scored twice after that in the fifth on Eric Campbell and T.J. Rivera RBI hits to cut the lead to 4-2, but poor defense put the game out of reach.

“Physical errors happen,” Backman said.

But when three happen within four plate appearances — like it did in the sixth — it winds up costing.

The first error came on a Gavin Cecchini throw, the second on a Johnny Monell missed catch at first and the third a Mazzilli fielding error. They led to two runs.

“Defensively, we didn’t play well tonight, but we didn’t pitch well either,” Backman said. “I haven’t looked at a box score, but we’re having a hard time following a plan.”

After Ynoa, Chase Huchingson threw a scoreless inning before Jeff Walters gave up two runs in the sixth — both unearned — and Chasen Bradford gave up three runs on four hits in the eighth.

“It’s the plan of how we want to pitch certain guys. It’s something that I’ll have to talk to them about,” Backman said. “I mean a lot of it has to do with locating your pitches but we’re just, I’m going to say the last three weeks, the plans that we’re following are (expletive) because we’re not executing.”

Betsy Helfand can be reached at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @BetsyHelfand