The Vancouver Canadians dropped a 3-2 decision to the Tri-City Dust Devils at Gesa Stadium on Thursday.

The Dust Devils rallied against C’s reliever Chay Yeager in the bottom of the ninth. A double to lefty by Wetaskiwin, Alberta native Matt Coutney started the frame and Werner Blakely got aboard with a walk. Mason Martin then placed a bunt single down the third base line to load the bases with nobody out. Yeager struck out Ronaldo Flores for the first out. The game was over two pitches later when Jorge Ruiz singled to left to drive in Coutney and Blakely for the tying and winning runs.

Vancouver picked up its only two runs to open the scoring in the fifth against Tri-City starter Chris Clark. A leadoff walk by Brennan Orf and a flare single to right by Jean Arnaez—the first hit of the night for the C’s—with one away set the table for Estiven Machado and he blooped a single to left that just eluded a diving Joe Stewart to score Orf. Dasan Brown was hit by a pitch on the left elbow to load the bases and Ryan McCarty produced a sacrifice fly to right to drive in Arnaez. Jace Bohrofen took one for the team to reload the bags. Dylan Phillips relieved Clark and left the bags full when he bested his former Kansas State teammate Nick Goodwin with a pop out to short.

Tri-City cut into the lead in the bottom of the fifth against Vancouver starter Chris McElvain. A one-out single to right by Ronaldo Flores moved into scoring position on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out double to left by Stewart.

C-Notes

C's Notes

McElvain was perfect through two innings, striking out Kevin Bruggeman and Ben Gobbel swinging to finish the first.

Trouble was brewing for McElvain in the third when he walked Rios who was bunted over to second by Ruiz. Jackson Hornung pounced on the ball up the third base line, spun around and fired it to first to just get Ruiz. Stewart reached on an infield single to first when McElvain could not cover the bag in time, moving to third. Stewart swiped second base but McElvain stranded Ruiz and Stewart by striking out Caleb Ketchup swinging and Bruggeman looking.

In the fourth inning, McElvain handled back-to-back comebackers to the mound by Gobbel and Coutney to begin a 1-2-3 frame. McElvain ended six strong innings with just an infield single to third by Gobbel with one out in the sixth.

Johnathan Lavallee had a nice bottom of the seventh for Vancouver with strikeouts of Mason Martin looking and Ruiz swinging to begin and end a perfect frame.

Anders Tolhurst handled a comebacker to the bump by Stewart and struck out Ketchup swinging to open the eighth. Bruggeman singled up the middle and stole second but Tolhurst got Gobbel to foul out to first.

Goodwin was the first Vancouver baserunner with a leadoff walk in the top of the second but he was thrown out trying to steal second by Alberto Rios. Vancouver had a two-out walk from Machado in the third, a Bohrofen free pass with one out in the fourth and a Hornung ball four to start the sixth.

Bohrofen singled with one out in the eighth against Brady Choban with one away in the eighth and Arnaez had a two-out infield single to short against Camden Minacci in the ninth. Jaden Rudd came in to pinch-run for Arnaez but was stranded.

Rudd remained in the game and took over for Glenn Santiago in right field. Santiago subbed in for Arnaez at second.

The Dust Devils were without Rios in the top of the fifth. He was replaced by Flores behind the dish.

The C’s broke out the road greys for the first time in 2024, matching their 2023 season total.

Kevin Miranda gets the starting assignment for Vancouver on Friday night. The game is available on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Rafael Sánchez and Pat Gallagher are slated to start the final two games of the series this weekend.

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C-Tweets

Published by Niall O'Donohoe

My name is Niall O’Donohoe and I am an avid follower of baseball. My blog beginnings began in 2007 with Batter’s Box under the alias #2JBrumfield. The blog formerly known as Niall On Baseball, C’s Plus Baseball strives to deliver plus coverage of the C’s through photos, observations and interviews of the players striving to make it to the major leagues. If you like what you see here, please spread the word about CsPlusBaseball.ca through your favourite social media platform. This blog began just before the C's championship season in 2017 and the goal is to deliver awesome content about Canada’s only affiliated professional minor league baseball club. Thanks a million for being here!

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