Mavs' Pena takes perfecto into seventh

On Saturday night in Bakersfield, a music festival across the street from Sam Lynn Ballpark forced the Blaze to delay the first pitch of their matchup with High Desert until 8:15 PT. When they finally got festivities underway between the white lines, Richelson Pena made up for lost time.

The Rangers prospect retired his first 19 batters as he took a perfect game into the seventh inning in his best start of the season as the Mavericks blanked Bakersfield, 5-0.

"His fastball command was great," High Desert catcher Kellin Deglan said. "He was working both sides of the plate, and his off-speed was there, too. His fastball, his changeup, his curveball, he could throw them all for strikes. He didn't make any bad pitches."

Coming off back-to-back starts of at least seven innings, the 21-year-old right-hander was in dominant form from the moment the first pitch was finally thrown at 8:23 local time. Pena finished four of his first five innings with strikeouts, fanning Tyler Marlette and Austin Wilson -- the Mariners' ninth- and sixth-ranked prospects -- respectively, to end the fifth.

"He made my job easy tonight," Deglan said. "We were on the same page. I'd call a pitch and he would execute it. It was really fun to work with him."

The native of the Dominican Republic set down the side in order in the sixth to take the perfect game to the seventh. After retiring leadoff man Ian Miller on a fly ball to left field, the night took an inauspicious turn.

Bakersfield's Tim Lopes, looking to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, lofted a foul pop on the right side of the infield. As first baseman Ronald Guzman approached, Lopes ran by him and Guzman dropped the ball for an error.

"We were saying it was obstruction, but the ump didn't see contact," Deglan said. "I'm not sure if there was contact, but the next pitch or two pitches later, the guy got a chopper through the six-hole."

The miscue gave the Blaze second baseman new life, and Lopes made Pena pay by lining a single into left field for Bakersfield's first hit of the game.

Pena rebounded to strike out Mariners No. 11 prospect Tyler O'Neill and get a groundout from Guillermo Pimentel to end his night.

"He came back and he made pitches." Deglan said. "He got the three and four hitters in their lineup, and they're the best hitters in the lineup. He [bore] down, made pitches after giving up the hit. It just shows his maturity."

Pena's effort came against a team that came into Saturday night with the California League's lowest batting average (.218), but one that had totaled 22 runs in a three-game series against Stockton.

The late start time was a departure from the norm for Deglan and the Mavericks, but the catcher and his teammates didn't let it affect them once they got to the ballpark.

"I've never started a game that late before," Deglan said. "There was a lot of sitting around in the hotel because we had so much time until the game started. I kind of felt a little tired even before the game started, but I locked it in."

After Pena's exit, Jefri Hernandez completed the Mavericks' third shutout of the season. He gave up a single in the ninth but struck out four batters over two innings and did not walk a man.

High Desert grabbed the lead in the second on Guzman's RBI double and didn't look back. Evan Van Hoosier led the Mavericks with three hits and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot.