Jason Vargas goes 4 innings in rehab start as 51s lose to El Paso

Las Vegas 51s’ starter Jason Vargas accomplished everything he wanted to Monday night in Las Vegas in what is expected to be his first and only rehab start with the team. The lefty, who suffered a broken hamate bone in his non-throwing hand during spring training, is supposed to be activated this weekend by the Mets.

“Just having to catch the ball, making plays, having to cover first base … we were able to kind of knock those out in the first inning, so it was nice to not have to think about it and just go out there and play,” Vargas said.

Vargas did that for four innings, giving up three runs on three hits in his outing gainst the El Paso Chihuahuas.

All three runs came in the third inning where the Chihuahuas took a lead for good in their 6-3 win in the series finale at Cashman Field.

Vargas gave up three straight doubles to Travis Jankowski, Diego Goris and Brett Nicholas.

“(I) missed with a couple pitches and one of them got hit pretty hard,” Vargas said. “The other ones we’ll just kind of take them as they go. They’re just part of the game.”

Vargas had surgery on his right hand March 20 and said the past month has been a waiting game with the incision in his hand taking longer to heal than he expected.

But now, he feels healthy and ready to make his Mets’ debut.

“Anytime you’re on a team when they’re playing well, you want to be out there and be a part of it and hopefully help for future success as well,” Vargas said. “The guys are playing really well right now and we’ve got a good thing going.”

The same cannot be said for the 51s (5-14), who were swept by El Paso (14-5).

Chris Flexen, normally a starter, followed Vargas into the game, coming on in the fifth and pitching four innings.

Flexen gave up two runs in his appearance, both coming on two-run blast from Jankowski in the fifth inning.

Jacob Rhame also gave up a home run in his one inning.

Offensively, the 51s were mostly quieted by Luis Perdomo, who was recently sent down by the Padres.

Perdomo walked the first two batters of the game, but Luis Guillorme was caught off second base for the first out of the inning. Perdomo walked the next batter, too, but the 51s weren’t able to do serious damage, only scoring one run in the inning on a Johnny Monell RBI single.

“We had a chance in the first inning walking the first two guys,” manager Tony DeFrancesco said. “Guillorme at second base tried to be overaggressive on a steal attempt. He got caught in the middle and kind of took us out of the inning. We only scored one run. He wound up walking three batters. After that, Perdomo definitely shut us down.”

Perdomo went seven innings and gave up two runs on four hits, the other run coming on Ty Kelly’s fifth home run of the year in the seventh inning.

Las Vegas scored once more in the ninth on a Phillip Evans home run, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Chihuahuas, who have now beaten the 51s nine of 12 times this season.

The 51s won just one game on their seven-game homestand but will have an off day Tuesday to regroup before hitting the road for five games.

“They need a breather. The game kind of grinds on you,” DeFrancesco said. “I think overall it doesn’t matter what part of the season, you’re going to go through this. Hopefully we get out of that early here and we get to Albuquerque, get on a roll, come home for the next homestand and try to get this thing rolling again.”

More 51s: Follow all of our Las Vegas 51s coverage online at reviewjournal.com/51s and @RJ_Sports on Twitter.

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