They hit some good balls down the line on us a little bit and that hurt us there. They got some breaks on some good hits, but we just didn’t score enough runs tonight and put the ball in play. – Bees manager Dave Anderson
SALT LAKE CITY — If there is one team the Salt Lake Bees always seem to struggle with it's the PCL’s top team, the Las Vegas 51s.
Despite edging Las Vegas 5-3 in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday, the Bees have won only two of their last 15 contests, including one of their last 10, against the 51s this season after dropping the second game of the day, 4-1, at Smith’s Ballpark. It's Last Vegas’ sixth win in its last eight games.
“Obviously, losing 13 out of 15, we are really struggling against them. They are a really good team. They have a lot of different weapons to use — stealing bases, hitting home runs and they’re very tough at their ballpark. We just struggle with them. Our record (against them) speaks for itself more than anything else. We had some games we had some chances to win and made some mistakes. They’re a really great team,” Bees manager Dave Anderson said.
After getting rained out last night and coming up short in the first matchup, Las Vegas came out swinging and wasted no time getting into a rhythm at the plate.
The 51s spread out four runs over the first three innings thanks to RBIs by Wilfredo Tovar, Brandon Nimmo and Matt Reynolds while tallying five hits to take an early 4-0 lead.
“They hit some good balls down the line on us a little bit and that hurt us there. They got some breaks on some good hits, but we just didn’t score enough runs tonight and put the ball in play. They’re just a really tough team,” Anderson said.
Then, after struggling to find their bats in the second game, the Bees were finally able to get on the board in the home half of the third to cut their deficit to 4-1.
Unfortunately for the Bees, that was about as much action as they had left in them.
Salt Lake mustered just one hit in the final four innings and failed to score while Las Vegas came up with several great stops, especially in the ninth, to bounce back from its early loss and clinch the 4-1 win and get back on track.
“Their pitcher did a really nice job tonight. He kept the ball down and we didn’t have too many chances to score runs. In the ninth inning, we really had our chance and they made a really nice double play. So there wasn’t much we could do there,” Anderson said.
The Bees and 51s will play the final game of the series Sunday at 1:05 p.m. at Smith’s Ballpark.
Ryan Love is a full-time student and has been a part-time sportswriter for the Deseret News since Oct. 2012.
Follow him on Twitter @RLove7724
EMAIL: rlove@deseretnews.com