Saturday night the Tacoma Rainiers gave up a run in the ninth inning costing them a victory, and lost one inning later to the Las Vegas 51s. On Sunday afternoon, Justin Germano was having no heroics, as he and two relievers combined to shutout the visitors, giving Tacoma the 4-0 win.

Matt Bowman returned to the hill for Las Vegas after struggling in his last outing against Sacramento. The right-hander breezed through the first frame, but gave up a single run in both the second and third innings. A two-out double by Patrick Kivlehan got the rally going for Tacoma in the second. Two batters later Shawn O’Malley singled to center field scoring Kivlehan to stake the Rainiers to the 1-0 lead. One inning later the home team was back on the scoreboard when Ketel Marte rocked his first home run of the season over the right-center field wall to make it 2-0.

Bowman was struggling a bit early on, but he showed incredible poise, settling down over the next four innings to keep Tacoma from scoring again. The Las Vegas starter gave up a pair of two-out singles in the fourth, but the threat ended when Brandon Allen made a perfect throw from left field to nail Leon Landry at the plate. He allowed a single hit in both the fifth and sixth innings, but Tacoma could not capitalize.

Bowman’s day ended after six innings. He allowed 8 hits, 2 walks and 2 earned runs to score. A big concern for the right-hander is that three Rainiers players stole bases off of him.

The two runs were plenty for Germano, who allowed 6 hits and no walks during his 6 inning stint. He struck out 5 Las Vegas hitters, and threw 68 of his 94 pitches for strikes. The 51s had a runner at second base in the second, fourth and sixth innings, including a back-to-back singles to lead off the sixth, but in each case the Tacoma starter came through with the right pitch at the right time to end the threats.

The Rainiers would add two more runs in the seventh inning. Logan Verrett took over for Bowman and gave up a single to Shawn O’Malley to lead off the bottom half of the inning. Austin Jackson and James Jones each drew walks to load the bases. Marte grounded out to first, moving the runners up 90-feet and scoring O’Malley. Jackson came around to score on an error to make it 4-0.

Lucas Luetge took over in the seventh and pitched two perfect innings. Mayckol Guaipe finished the night, retiring the 51s in order.

The Las Vegas 51s finished with six hits. No hitter had more than one hit on the night, and no one reached base after the sixth inning. O’Malley had three hits for the Rainiers. He also scored a run and drove in one. Marte had three RBI.

These two teams will continue their series tomorrow night with a 6:05 start time in Tacoma. Darin Gorski (3-2, 5.63) will take to the mound for the Las Vegas 51s against Sam Gaviglio (2-3, 5.09) for Tacoma.

Boxscore Provided by MiLB.com

Las Vegas 51s Sightings: Eric Campbell was sent to Las Vegas to work on his swing after starting the season hitting .200 through the first 16 games for the New York Mets. After hitting .440 in 15 games in Las Vegas he was recalled by the Mets on May 15. In his two games since returning to the Majors Campbell is an impressive 4-8 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBI…Noah Syndergaard made his second start for the Mets since being called up early last week. The right-hander earned the first win of his Major League career against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday. Syndergaard went 6 innings, allowed 3 hits, a walk and one earned run. He also struck out 5 batters. His exemplary outing lowered his ERA to 3.18.

By Robert Pannier