LAS VEGAS -- Moving past a rough start to the Pacific Coast League season, the Las Vegas 51s are on a serious roll right now. Monday afternoon's 7-6 victory completed a four-game sweep of the Salt Lake Bees and was a sixth straight win, not to mention a 10th in 11 games for the Toronto Blue Jays' triple-A affiliate, pulling back to .500 at 16-16. "Pretty much every facet has improved," said first basemen David Cooper. "We've gotten better on defence, on pitching, hitting, and not just hitting, but timely hitting, big two-out hits. And the pitching has been outstanding." Several players the parent club is watching closely made an impact in their latest triumph, in which they erased an early five-run deficit and settled on Cooper's run-scoring bloop single in the eighth inning. Shortstop Adeiny Hechvarria collected a pair of two-out RBI singles, centre-fielder Anthony Gose ripped a three-run blast, and right-fielder Moises Sierra added a solo blast to pace the offence, while starter Jesse Chavez battled through six innings, settling down after allowing a two-run homer to Matt Long in the third and a three-run blast to John Hester in the fourth. In all he allowed five runs, two walks and struck out six as he tries to position himself to be the next starting pitcher called up. "I left a couple balls up and any ball up deserves to get hit out," said Chavez. "I had to grind through six innings. That was the first time I had to grind all year, fortunately, so it's been going well. I'll get back to the mound, figure out what I did wrong mechanically. "Luckily it didn't cost us the ballgame." Some handy work from the bullpen, in particular a dominant inning apiece from Ryota Igarashi and closer Chad Beck, who collected his fourth save, helped seal the deal. Before the game at Cashman Field, set against a picturesque desert mountain range, sportsnet.ca caught up with 51s manager Marty Brown and asked him for a scouting report on several of his key players: Anthony Gose "He's making adjustments to this level, first time being in triple-A, it's kind of a work in progress. He's been working with (hitting coach) Chad Mottola a lot, trying to get into some solid routines and it's starting to pay off. He's changed his stance a little bit, he's a little wider, a little better balanced, gives himself a chance on off-speed. He's seeing a lot of different off-speed stuff, probably more so than last year, but he's making good adjustments. "Anthony, for the most part, needs to find out what type of hitter he is, and he's doing that right now. I think he realizes he does have good power, but it's not about over-swinging or doing too much. It's about consistency within his swing; bat-speed needs to be the same every time, rather than trying to get into a leverage count and trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark. That's not really his game. He'll run into some balls because he does have some power, but it's more how he can change the course of a game by just getting on first base. "He really speeds the game up for the opposition, for me that's what I see him as, a chaos-maker." Travis d'Arnaud: "I think he's in the same area as Anthony. Travis is starting to understand he needs to be consistent with his approach, have a better plan. Both of those guys are so talented, they sometimes can walk into the box and do things totally different from one at-bat to the fourth at-bat, and still have success. Now it boils down to being consistent, your stride length is the same, having a good plan in the on-deck circle, knowing what you want to do before you get up there." Adeiny Hechavarria: "He does seem stronger this year than he did when I had him for the last month of the (2011) season. He's doing a lot of things well, I think it was really good he was here for that last month to make the adjustments he's making right now. He still has things he needs to work on offensively, part of it is about consistency, making sure he has the same approach throughout the day. His two-strike approach, he gets a little bit lower on his legs and he's had pretty good success doing that. He's a phenomenal athlete, what he does in the field is going to translate to his offence." David Cooper: "He can hit, that's what he is, just a flat out hitter. You can feel very comfortable with him at the plate and men in scoring position, I don't know that I've had anybody that's any better than him. He's a very tough out with men in scoring position." Jesse Chavez: "He's responded really well (to starting after seven seasons of relieving), he's had no issues health-wise, knock on wood. He's been the most consistent out of our starting rotation. His stuff stays the same and out of that little, bitty, skinny body he can ran it up there, 95, 96 miles an hour, it's amazing how he gets that kind of arm speed. He's put himself on the charts, I think he's a consideration that can help out the big-league club." Ryota Igarashi: "He's throwing the hell out of the ball. I saw him in Japan when he was with the Swallows, he pitched against us, and I really thought at that time, he'd be the type of guy to come here and have success out of the bullpen. Over there he threw his forkball a lot more, now he's throwing a curveball that keeps them off his fastball. His fastball we've clocked as high as 97, 98. He usually pitches at 95 and he's got a little slider that's hard, has got a late tilt to it. Command hasn't been an issue. I like the guy a lot, I think he can help out at the major-league level at some point when they have that need." Chad Beck: "He's learning a new role, it's such a different thing for someone who's been in the starter's role to go into the closer's role. He's had issues where he's tried to overthrow, just tried to throw as hard as he can, and he loses some of his command. We're trying to get him to stay within himself, understand his stuff is good enough, it plays in the zone to the bat, but he can strike people out."
Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.
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