An exhausted-looking squad of Albuquerque Isotopes battled to the bitter end, but it was not enough in a 7-6 loss to the visiting Las Vegas 51s on Wednesday night.
The Isotopes' day started around 3 a.m. when the players and coaches got their wake-up calls at the hotel in Nashville. They got to the airport at 4 a.m., flew out at 6 a.m., and finally arrived in Albuquerque at 10 a.m.
As if to add to the misery, a light rain and nearby lightning delayed the start of the game from 7:05 to 7:44 p.m.
"Long day, ugly night," manager Lorenzo Bundy said.
Albuquerque (64-48) did stay 1.5 games ahead of Oklahoma City (62-49) in the race for the American Southern Division title as the RedHawks lost 7-4 at Tacoma.
That offered about the only solace after a game in which the Isotopes made four errors, including three in a critical fourth inning that saw the 51s (63-48) score four runs to erase a 2-0 deficit.
"The mistakes that we made weren't travel-related for me," Bundy said. "It's a matter of playing catch for most of them."
Las Vegas put two on with one out in the fourth when Mark Sobolewski chopped one down the line that third baseman Alex Castellanos bobbled for the first error, enabling Danny Perales to score.
On the next play, Chris Woodward hit a single to center to drive in Mike McDade. The throw back to the infield was mishandled by first baseman Scott Van Slyke for one error, then Van Slyke fielded the ball and tried to throw out Sobolewski at third base, but the throw went wild and Sobolewski scored while Woodward raced from first to third.
Ricardo Nanita then drove in Woodward on a groundout to make it 4-2.
"It was pretty frustrating," Bundy said.
Tim Federowicz, who smacked three doubles, drove in Matt Angle in the bottom of the fourth to cut Las Vegas' lead to 4-3. The 51s responded with three more runs in the sixth, with all of them being unearned as the result of a throwing error by starting pitcher Cole St. Clair (3-2).
Angle led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run and Federowicz followed with a double. Trent Oeltjen drove in Federowicz with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-5.
Castellanos led off the eighth with a home run to pull the Isotopes within one run, but they would get no closer.
"I can deal with them fighting, but then again there were a couple baserunning mistakes, we didn't execute a bunt," Bundy said.
St. Clair took the loss in his second career start, allowing seven runs â€" two earned â€" on five hits and four walks in 5.2 innings.
The Isotopes will try to bounce back and snap a three-game losing streak on Thursday at 7:05 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment