Henderson Alvarez cruised through seven shutout innings Friday night. He gave up five hits but recorded 14 of his 16 non-strikeout outs via groundballs. Mike McDade popped two home runs. And in the "glimpse of the future" department, in the sixth inning Adeiny Hechavarria, Tyler Pastornicky and Travis D'Arnaud had consecutive hits to score two runs. Jesse Litsch was pretty good for six innings in AAA on Friday but the bottom fell out fast in the seventh. Las Vegas went on to lose. Kyle Drabek had a not so good start and the hitters were shut down by Bowie. Lansing were rained out.
This was a battle of major league pitchers, Jesse Litsch versus James McDonald. Another ex-major leaguer, Jay Gibbons, hit a two run home run off Litsch in the first inning. But then Litsch settled down and kept Albuquerque off the scoreboard while allowing a hit here and there.
Las Vegas tied the game in the fifth, Jorge Padilla, Jarrett Hoffpauir and Jesus Merchan each singled to score one run. Brett Wallace then doubled to drive in a second run.
In the sixth inning Brian Dopirak singled. Chris Aguila had an rbi triple and Hoffpauir an rbi single and the 51's led 4-2.
Litsch ran out of gas, or luck, in the seventh. Chin-Lung Hu hit a three run home run off Litsch. Litsch gave up three more hits and a run before Zach Jackson came on to give up a home run to score three more runs and make it a seven run inning.
Litsch was charged with eight runs on eleven hits in 6.2 innings. But if we break it down Litsch gave up two runs on five hits in 6 innings, and six runs on six hits in .2 of an inning.
Las Vegas had ten hits. Hoffpauir, Merchan and Dopirak had two each.
New Hampshire were held to 5 hits, one of them a Shawn Bowman home run that gave the Fisher Cats the lead in the fourth inning. Kyle Drabek was not at his best, he gave up ten hits, three walks and all five Bowie runs, in 5.2 innings. Tim Collins pitched 1.1 perfect innings.
Henderson Alvarez dominated this game. He went seven innings and gave up four hits with no walks. He had 5 strikeouts and got 14 of 16 outs via the groundball. Alvarez ERA is now 1.40.
Dunedin scored first in the third inning, Wellinton Ramirez doubled in Daniel Perales. In the fourth Mike McDade homered to make it 2-0. The Jays got a glimpse of the future in the sixth, Adeiny Hechavarria tripled, Tyler Pastornicky doubled in a run and Travis D'Arnaud singled in Pastornicky. McDade hit a second home run to make it 5-0 in the eighth.
Pastornicky, McDade and Ramirez had two hits each. Jupiter scored their only run off Chad Beck in the eighth.
Great Lakes at Lansing - rained out
Game will be made up with a doubleheader on Saturday.
Three Stars
3rd star - Jarrett Hoffpauir
2nd star - Mike McDade
1st star - Henderson Alvarez
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