After last night’s win, Chihuahua’s manager Pat Murphy was looking for consistency on offense. He got it tonight. El Paso scored at least a run in six of eight innings on their way to a resounding 13-5 win over the Sacramento River Cats.
“We put together some good innings,” Murphy said. “(We had) that kind of relentless, stay with it attitude.”
El Paso’s starting pitcher, James Needy, retired the first six batters he faced. Sacramento’s starting pitcher, Jake Dunning, hit three of the first eight batters he faced.
Dunning’s night could not have gone much worse than it did tonight. He gave up 11 runs, six earned, on nine hits in less than three and a half innings of work.
In the second inning, with the Chihuahuas already leading by a run, Abraham Almonte came to the plate with men on second at third. He hit a towering bomb into right field and onto the second floor of the Big Dog House. Almonte had three of El Paso’s 12 hits, on five at bats and drove in four runs—he has 12 RBI’s on the season.
“Almonte has really been a main stay for us,” Murphy said. “Whether he’s playing good or he’s not playing good, he is the same…He’s gonna play for a long time.”
Almonte is top three on the team in hits and RBI’s, with 17 and 12, respectively. With tonight’s home run, the 25-year-old Dominican now leads the team in that category this season with three. Almonte also leads the Chihuahuas in runs with 14.
The Chihuahuas followed up the big second inning with an even bigger third. Dunning got two quick outs and then it got ugly again. With a man on base, thanks to a wild pitch, Alex Dickerson homered to center field to make it 5-0. El Paso was not done though.
Mike McCoy walked, Rocky Gale singled and Needy helped his own cause with a great bunt that would load the bases. That set the table for Ramiro Pena, who would single and bring in two more runs. Jake Goebbert added some more with a triple that scored both Needy and Pena. By the time Sacramento got the third out the Chihuahuas had scored six runs and led the game by eight.
“We have a lot of good hitters and we didn’t even have everybody in there today,” Dickerson said. “I think on the bases actually helped us a lot. You got McCoy out there causing chaos, Pena out there drawing throws and that got the pitcher focused on something other than pitching and we were able to clean up on the offensive side.”
Dickerson’s home run in the third was his first in Triple-A. He’d spent the previous four years playing single and double A ball.
“It felt good,” Dickerson said. “I’m just slowly letting the game come to me and just take everything in stride.”
The impressive offensive night made the four runs Needy allowed in his five innings of work inconsequential. He allowed eight hits, walked two and struck out one. He finished the game with a 6.14 ERA and got his second win in as many starts this season.
“Needy bobbed and weaved through five, he didn’t exactly throw the ball great,” Murphy said. “He got hit hard, but he ends up getting the win.”
After Needy’s five innings Murphy called on three relievers to close the four innings left. Stephen Kohlcheen and Scott Elbert each pitched an inning and Leonel Campos took care of the final two.
Tonight’s win is the Chihuahuas second in a row and seventh in their last eight games. El Paso and Sacramento will take the field again tomorrow night, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. at Southwest University Park.
Luis Gonzalez may be reached at [email protected].
