The Vancouver Canadians knocked off the Tri-City Dust Devils 7-4 at Gesa Stadium on Friday.

The C’s and Dust Devils—wearing their Viñeros de Tri-City jerseys—traded leadoff home runs in the first inning. Dasan Brown jumped on the second pitch of the game from Erik Rivera for a home run to left-center field to put Vancouver on top. Caleb Ketchup caught up to Kevin Miranda‘s sixth pitch of the night and deposited the ball over the left field fence to tie the game at 1-1.

Vancouver took the lead again in the top of the second against the lefty Rivera. Dylan Rock singled to left and Brennan Orf had a base hit to right to put runners on the corners. After Jaden Rudd hit into a 5-4 fielder’s choice, Estiven Machado singled to right to drive in Rock and advanced to second on the throw. That made it easier for Machado to score on a Jommer Hernández double to left field that also scored Rudd to put the Canadians up 4-1.

The lead expanded to five in the top of the third when Jackson Hornung belted a one-out solo homer to center and Orf went deep to right-center an out later to make it 6-1 Vancouver.

The Dust Devils scratched out a run against Miranda in the home half of the fourth. Base hits to left and right by Denzer Guzman and Matt Coutney got the inning started to put runners at first and third. A Jadiel Sánchez 3-6 double play scored Guzman to cut the C’s lead to 6-2.

Miranda gave way to Alex Amalfi who pitched a perfect sixth that was punctuated with strikeouts of Ben Gobbel and Guzman. Amalfi allowed the first two men to reach base in the seventh as a Coutney single to right and a Sánchez knock to left led to Amalfi’s exit. Grayson Thurman struck out Mason Martin but Werner Blakely singled to right to score Coutney. Kevin Bruggeman hit into a 4-6 fielder’s choice but Jorge Ruiz doubled to right to bring in Sanchez to cut the Vancouver lead to 6-4.

Vancouver would score its final run in the seventh when Brown doubled to left and came in to score on fly balls to left and right by Jeff Wehler and Nick Goodwin respectively.

Thurman pitched a clean eighth by whiffing Gobbel and Guzman to start the frame before Justin Kelly nailed down the save by striking out the side. The former Utah Ute got Sánchez looking, Martin swinging and Blakely looking in a perfect ninth.

C-Notes

C's Notes

The C’s took advantage of most of their opportunities save for the fifth inning when they loaded the bases against Quinton Martinez on a leadoff single to right by Wehler, a one-out single to left by Hornung and a two-out walk by Orf.

Orf and Rudd opened the eighth with back-to-back walks by Roman Phansalkar but nothing else materialized.

Goodwin was hit by a pitch from Willian Suarez to start the seventh but remained in the game.

Miranda found a groove by retiring eight in a. row at one point after a one-out walk to Guzman in the first. An error by Orf allowed Blakely to reach base to start the fifth but Hernández picked off Blakely and the inning ended two batters later with Ruiz going down swinging.

Rafael Sánchez was slated to start on Saturday for Monty’s Mounties but CanadiansBaseball.com is showing that fellow Cuban and 2021 Canadians hurler Lazaro Estrada will get the call instead. Nothing has been posted in the transactions column as of yet. We’ll learn the identity of Vancouver’s starter at 6:30 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV. The 25-year-old righthander from Ciudad Habana, Cuba has been on rehab assignment with the Dunedin Blue Jays where he has pitched twice for a total of 4-2/3 innings in which he has struck out five and walked two.

If Lazardo Estrada is called up, he will not be the only Estrada at Nat Bailey Stadium this week. Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada will be at The Nat to sign autographs for the fans on Tuesday when the C”s open a six-game series against the Everett AquaSox. It will be a rematch of the 2023 Northwest League Championship Series in which the Canadians won in four games.

C-Tweets

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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