9th inning rally short circuits, 51s drop fifth straight

When the 51s loaded the bases in the ninth with no outs trailing by one, they looked to be in a good position to at least tie the game.

It wasn’t to be.

The next batter, Travis Snider, struck out before Jayce Boyd hit a ball toward third. Third baseman Orlando Calixte fired to catcher Trevor Brown who threw to first base to complete teh double play and end the game.

Instead, a Chris Shaw RBI double proved the difference maker as the 51s fell 3-2 on Monday night to Sacramento at Raley Field, extending their losing streak to five.

“I thought it was a good game, I thought that we played well. I thought that (we) pitched well, swung the bats well,” manager Pedro Lopez said. “I thought that we did a lot of good things tonight, just unfortunately came a little short. We had the winning run at second base in the ninth inning and Jayce hit a bullet to third base and the third baseman made a great play and ended up closing the game on a double play. As long as you bring the tying run or the winning run to the plate in the ninth inning, it’s always a good game.”

The game had been back-and-forth since the second when the 51s (52-83) took the first lead of the night on Jhoan Urena’s first Triple-A home run.

Two innings later, Sacramento (59-75) evened it up, scoring as Ryan Lollis lined into a double play.

They plated another run an inning later as Ali Castillo scored on an error by Urena to give them their first lead of the night.

The 51s tied it up on a Snider single before Shaw’s double to right off reliever Jacob Rhame broke what had been a 2-2 tie since the seventh.

Las Vegas starter Luis Mateo, making another spot start, gave the 51s what they needed from him, throwing 4 2/3 innings and giving up two runs.

“He was supposed to go 70 pitches, we let him go a couple extra pitches trying to see if we could get him a win,” Lopez said. “I know at that point we were down one run but that we were swinging the bats well, well enough that we could take the lead again in the top of the sixth but I thought overall he did a really good job.”

They got a scoreless 1 1/3 innings from Kyle Regnault and two innings from Rhame, who gave up the one run in his outing, to leave their bullpen in good shape for Tuesday’s game.

Up next

Who: Las Vegas 51s at Sacramento River Cats

When: 7:05 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Raley Field, West Sacramento, California

Starters: Mitch Atkins (4-7, 6.27 ERA) vs. Matt Gage (1-7, 5.96 ERA)

Next five

Wednesday: Las Vegas at Sacramento, 7:05 p.m.

Thursday: Las Vegas at Sacramento, 7:05 p.m.

Friday: Tacoma at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.

Saturday: Tacoma at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.

Sunday: Tacoma at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.

Update

The Mets optioned reliever Kevin McGowan back to Las Vegas on Sunday after their doubleheader with the Washington Nationals … 51s right-handed starter Wilfredo Boscan was placed on the temporarily inactive list.

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