Reese Kaplan -- 51s Fall to El Paso, 8-2

The Las Vegas 51s can’t seem to catch a break whenever they visit El Paso.  Drew Gagnon had been having a great year but started off in the first unable to find the plate with a GPS.  After getting the leadoff batter to ground out 6-3 he gave up a single to Chihuahuas 3^rd baseman Luis Urias.  Then the roof nearly caved in. 

From that point Gagnon was all over the place, not missing badly, but not getting any benefit of doubt either.  He issued back-to-back walks to hot hitting catcher Francisco Mejia and then to 1^st baseman Ty France.  Former Cardinal Allen Craig hit a sac fly to RF and plated the runner to give the Chihuahuas their first run, but after falling behind again, he got Shane Peterson out on a grounder to Pete Alonso at 1^st.

The 51s started on the 2^nd in nice fashion with a single by Dom Smith, but after Bryce Brentz went down swinging and Patrick Kivlehan watched strike three Luis Guillorme lined a single to right center and Jose Lobaton drew a walk to load the bases.  Unfortunately that brought Gagnon to the plate and he fanned looking, whining to the umpire about not getting those pitches himself.

In the bottom of the 2^nd the Chihuahuas mounted an attach with a home run by shortstop Javy Guerra, a single to the pitcher Logan Allen and then a home run to right by diminutive 2^nd baseman Carlos Asuaje.  The 4-0 lead looked like it was going to stand up as the 51s were not doing much at all.

However, that changed in the 4^th when Bryce Brentz and Patrick Kivlehan hit back-to-back homers to close the gap to 4-2.  The 51s managed to advance a runner to 2^nd but he died out there as the inning came to a close.

The Chihuahuas didn’t take the comeback lying down.  They put another run on the board in the bottom of the 4^th with a single to right by Urias.  Gagnon stopped the bleeding but the gap rose to 5-2.

Unfortunately he was followed by Logan “Rip” Taylor who was roughed up immediately but light hitting Chihuahua players to up the difference in the score to 7-2.  His strikeout of Luis Urias was nice to see but the damage had already been done.

Having seen enough of Taylor already, the Mets sent up banished lefty swinging Kevin Kaczmarski to pinch hit for him.   With Dom Smith, Bryce Brentz and Zach Borenstein playing the outfield nearly every day, Kacz has become a .338 hitting afterthought.  He didn’t help his cause by looking at strike three.

At this point in the game people were losing interest but regained it a bit when the Chihuahuas mascot and lovely dancers did some spirited choreography to AC DC’s “Thunderstruck”. 

Next lefty Ian Krol entered the game to absorb the beating.  He was betrayed by suddenly hands-of-stone Luis Guillorme at 2B and then Zach Borenstein had a brain fart and didn’t charge the ball which allowed the hitter, Urias, to take 2^nd which was generously scored as a double.  Pete Alonso went back to the RF foul area to flag down a pop-up and looked graceful doing it (despite his reputation).  Krol did himself no favors by walking Allen Craig to put two men on.  Fortunately he fanned Shane Peterson on a foul tip to get out of the inning unscathed.

The 51s tried to mount a rally when Zach Borenstein reached on an error when Ty France at 1B let a ball go under his glove.  That was followed by a walk to Pete Alonso, bringing up Dom Smith with 1 out.  He flew out to shallow left and put it in the hands on Bryce Brentz who’d homered earlier.  On a pitch in the dirt Borenstein crossed to third but inexplicably Alonso stayed at 1^st.  Unfortunately Brentz gave it a long ride to the deepest part of the ballpark and it was caught on the warning track. 

Krol started off the 7^th giving up a double to Dusty Coleman and it just got worse from there.  He looked like he was throwing strikes but not showing much movement on the pitches and the Chihuahuas just teed off on them.  He escaped with just one run scoring but looked very hittable.

Chris Beck came in to pitch the bottom of the 8^th in what should be the final inning of the game.  So far I’m tempted to pen a variation of the old Jimmy Breslin book.  It would be called, Can’t Anyone Here Pitch This Game?  Mets fans are well aware of what Chris Beck can (or can’t) do.  Apparently his level of expertise stops at AAA.  He fanned the first batter on 3 pitches.  He went 3-2 before getting Allen Craig on a called third strike.  Alonso then did an unassisted out fielding the ball and taking it to the bag himself.  Again Alonso looked a bit better than advertised as a fielder.

Early in the game there was a bit of a scare when Ty Kelly, Zach Borenstein and Pete Alonso had a three-way collision on a shallow fly ball.  Kelly got the worst of it, but shook it off and stayed in the game.  Mets fans everywhere held their collective breath until they found out that Alonso was not the one who was injured. 

In the 9th inning the 51s sent Borenstein, Alonso and Smith to the plate but came away with nothing to show for it.  Final score, Chihuahuas win by a score of 8-2.   

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After the game I hung around trying to get some one-on-one time with the players but it was not a night conducive to conversation.  

I did manage to corner Luis Guillorme for a quick hello.  We spoke about his surprising defensive struggles since he returned and he was writing it off to rust having sat on the bench most of his time in New York.  He did joke about one ball he surprisingly parked in the upper deck during the game but it was unfortunately a foul ball.  He also extended a hello to our own Mack.

I also had a quick exchange with Ty Kelly who was hobbling a bit after the game and we joked about the frequent flyer miles he's racking up on his trips back and forth to New York.  

Once again I encountered Gerson Bautista out in the hallway with some of the other Latin ballplayers but my fledgling Spanish was not sufficient to conduct an interview.  

After realizing I was not going to get any extended time with anyone I left and rode up in the elevator with some of the players and coaches but they were actively engaged in sort of a "can you top this" series of stories, so I didn't want to interrupt.  Hoepfully I'll have better luck tomorrow.