Eighth inning mistakes doom Rainiers in loss to 51s
Tacoma’s home winning streak came to an end at six games Tuesday evening, as the Rainiers dropped the second game of their four-game series against the Las Vegas 51s 3-2. A three-run rally by the 51s in the top of the eighth inning wiped away a good start by Williams Perez, who pitched six shutout innings in his first action for Tacoma this season.
“We made a couple mental mistakes late in the game,” manager Pat Listach said. “They shouldn’t have happened, but they did.”
Perez, called up from Double-A Arkansas to replace the injured Rob Whalen, started his night off right, striking out the first two Las Vegas batters he faced. Aside from 51s first baseman Patrick Kivlehan — who went 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles off of the Tacoma starter — Las Vegas couldn’t figure out Perez, who struck out five and allowed just five baserunners.
“He was outstanding mixing it up,” Litsach said. “I really didn’t know what to expect. I really hadn’t seen him throw before.”
Tacoma gave him a lead in the bottom of the fifth, when Gordon Beckham hit a fly ball to center deep enough to score Ian Miller, who had led off the inning with a triple.
Ryan Cook, in his first Triple-A action since coming back from a stint with Seattle, pitched a scoreless seventh inning.
Mike Morin came in to pitch the eighth, but quickly ran into trouble.A leadoff double and a single put runners on the corners for Zach Borenstein, who tied the game up with a sacrifice fly. The next batter, Peter Alonso, blooped a ball behind first base for a single, but Beckham took too long getting the ball in, allowing Jeff McNeil to stretch from first to third. Kivlehan followed that with his third double of the game, giving the 51s a 2-1 lead.
Las Vegas completed its scoring in the inning when Ty Kelly rolled a slow grounder to Beckham with two runners in scoring position. The Tacoma first baseman started to come home with the ball, but lost his footing, and was only able recover in time to get the force out at first.
“I feel like this is a game we should have won,” Listach said. “We let it get away.”
The Rainiers loaded the bases to lead off the bottom of the frame, but were only able to bring one run home as David Freitas grounded into a double play to score one by kill the momentum.
Whiff king
Tacoma’s relievers have been key to the Rainiers’ blazing run in June, and like in every good bullpen, it has a lot to do with the man at the end of it. Shawn Armstrong, who has four saves in his past five appearances, has become a staple in the ninth inning for Tacoma, averaging over 1 ½ strikeouts per inning in the month.
Armstrong, who was drafted in 2011 by the Cleveland Indians, spent the past three seasons bouncing between Cleveland and Triple-A Columbus. During that span, he also switched back and forth between roles, closing in the minors while pitching middle relief in the big leagues. But looking back, the switches didn’t affect him mentally so much as the approach he was taking on the mound.
“When I was with Cleveland, I tried to fool the hitters,” Armstrong said at Cheney Stadium before the game Tuesday. “But you’re facing really good hitters day in and day out, and you have to trust your stuff.”
When he joined the Mariners' organization this past offseason, Armstrong and Tacoma pitching coach Lance Painter focused on changing that mentality to a more self-centered one that took advantage of his velocity and movement.
“I’m just trying to focus on the plan from hitter-to-hitter. So whenever (the catcher) gives me a sign, I don’t think too much about what he’s doing, just try to execute each and every pitch at the bottom of the zone and let my stuff play.”
The results show the change has paid off. Despite having one of the lowest chase percentages in the Mariners' organization, Armstrong leads all Tacoma relief pitchers this season in strikeouts with 47, due to an exceptionally high whiff percentage.
With the way the Seattle bullpen is pitching at the moment, Armstrong knows that he’s much more likely to get a call-up to pitch middle relief. But therein lies another mental adjustment made this season, this one off of the advice of Mariners reliever Nick Vincent, to be ready to come in to the game at any time.
“Regardless if I’m throwing the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, or the fifth, I’m stretching in the fourth and fifth inning to get myself mentally prepared for when my name’s called,” Armstrong said. Just trying to stay the same person every day.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 5:27 PM.