With 76 strikes on 101 pitches and no walks, Ryan Rowland-Smith’s pitching performance Friday night can be summed up in one word – efficient.
The left-handed Australian allowed just two earned runs and led the Rainiers to a 6-3 win against Las Vegas for his fifth victory with the club.
The efficient pitching came in spite of the 109-degree desert heat at game time.
“It was 59 degrees when we got on the plane in Tacoma,” Rainiers manager Daren Brown said. “You worry about stamina in heat like this, but I thought (Rowland-Smith) did a nice job for us today.”
In his last start, a 1-0 win against Portland on July 12, he threw just 84 pitches.
Rowland-Smith (5-3), who pitched 3 innings for the Mariners in April before being placed on the disabled list, has won in his last four starts for Tacoma – a major improvement considering he won just one of his first six starts.
“He’s been getting a little better in each start for us,” Brown said.
Tacoma (45-47) wasted little time getting on the scoreboard. Leadoff batter Prentice Redman knocked a home run, continuing an eight-game hitting streak and giving the Rainiers an early 1-0 lead.
They would hold that lead until the second inning when Las Vegas’ J.P. Arencibia matched it with a one-run homer of his own.
The next three innings were dominated by pitching, as Rowland-Smith and Las Vegas left-hander Brian Burres kept the batters at bay and allowed no runs.
The 51s (43-50) broke the tie in the sixth on Travis Snider’s solo home run over the left-field wall.
Meanwhile, Burres continued to silence Tacoma’s offense. After Redman’s home run in the first, Burres pitched five straight scoreless innings.
He rang up nine strikeouts and allowed five hits through the first six innings, but the game began to unravel for Burres in the seventh.
With Tacoma’s Michael Saunders and Callix Crabbe on base with a pair of singles, Burres was called for a balk, advancing the baserunners to second and third. Oswaldo Navarro batted in the tying run in the next at-bat with an RBI ground out.
The Rainiers continued to take advantage of Burres’ troubles, as Redman delivered a single and Matt Tuiasosopo loaded the bases with a walk. Jeff Clement then gave Tacoma a 4-2 lead with a two-run single.
Saunders stretched the lead to 5-2 by hitting a solo home run in the eighth inning. Clement scored the Rainiers’ final run on Mike Carp’s sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Even with the 6-2, advantage, Las Vegas was able to put the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth and put a scare into the Rainiers.
With one out, reliever Randy Messenger loaded the bases with two singles and a walk.
After allowing a run to score on a sacrifice fly, he walked another before retiring the final batter.
The Rainiers’ victory tied the series at a win apiece and tied the season series with the 51s at five wins apiece.
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