Pitchers get a lot of recognition in these reports, pitching and defense are half of the game. On Tuesday Chad Jenkins and Asher Wojciechowski pitched well to lead their teams to victory. Aaron Sanchez pitched well, Justin Nicolino was OK, but the bullpen lost the Lugnuts game in the ninth. The Las Vegas pitching staff had pitched well during their road trip but once they came back to the sin city, their ERA's have balloooned. Scott Richmond was yesterdays victim.
Offensively, Jake Marisnick and Mike McDade hit their first home runs of the season. Anthony Gose and AJ Jimenez had two run triples as part of a two hit day. Jon Talley stayed hot with three more hits.
Colorado Springs 11 Las Vegas 6
Colorado Springs led 6-0 and 10-2 before the 51's scored some late runs. Scott Richmond have up 6 runs in 3 innings and four of the five Las Vegas pitchers gave up runs.
Every Vegas hitter recorded a hit, Anthony Gose, Moises Sierra and Ricardo Nanita had two. One of Gose's hits was a 2 run triple and he has moved his batting average in his last ten games up to .286. He is recovering somewhat from a slow start. Hechavarria made another error but I am not worried about it, I have seen him play and his defense is excellent.
Chad Jenkins pitched six shutout innings, giving up six hits. He was backed up by Clint Everts and Ron Uviedo to preserve the shutout.
The Fisher cats were facing prospect Zach Wheeler who the Mets acquired for Carlos Beltran last season. The game was scoreless until the sixth inning when AJ Jimenez tripled in two runs and later scored on a ground out. Mike McDade hit his first home run of the season in the ninth to provide some insurance. McDade is the only hitter whose BA is above 300 for a Fisher Cat team whose offense appears to be a lot weaker than last years. Brad McElroy and Jimenez had two hits each.
Asher Wojciechowski seems to be back on track in 2012. He pitched 5.1 innings, only allowing an unearned run, to lower his ERA to 3.38. Wojo had 6 K's in his 5.1 innings. Aleson Escalante, making his 2012 debut, pitched 2.2 innings in relief and Shawn Griffith finished off the ninth.
Michael Crouse doubled in the first and third innings and scored each time. Jake Marisnick hit his first home run of the season, a two run shot, in the fourth. Jon Talley continued his recent impressive play with three more hits, a couple of RBI's and a walk. The Jays had 13 hits with every starter getting one.
This was a scoreless battle until the ninth inning. Lansing had the first shot at the ninth and they scored twice, Kevin Pillar led off the ninth with a single and a KC Hobson double helped bring him home. Later andy Burns singled in the second run and it looked like the Lugnuts would win. But Brandon Berl allowed a couple of hits then bobbled a bunt to load the bases with no one out. Ajay Meyer came on to give up a game tying double, an intentional walk and a walk-off grand slam, ouch!
Aaron Sanchez started for Lansing and he pitched the usual three innings, and he was the usual Sanchez, namely a few walks (three), few hits (one) and lots of K's (seven). He was followed by Justin Nicolino who was relatively lit up for five hits in his three innings but he managed to leave them all on base. Kenny Wilson and Burns had two hits each.
Three Stars
3rd Star: (tie) Michael Crouse, AJ Jimenez
2nd Star: Asher Wojciechowski
1st Star: Chad Jenkins
