The Vancouver Canadians edged the Everett AquaSox 5-4 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday.
The C’s picked up the first run of the game against AquaSox starter Marcelo Perez in the bottom of the second inning. Brennan Orf beat out a slow roller to short for an infield single and got to second with one out when Estiven Machado hit a comebacker to the mound that Perez knocked down to start a 1-3 putout. Jommer Hernández then blooped a single to center field that landed just in front of Jared Sundstrom to drive in Orf.
Vancouver padded its lead in the fourth against Everett reliever Bryan Pope. Orf started another rally by legging out a triple to right field with one out. Dylan Rock stepped up and delivered a base hit to left to score Orf and moved into scoring position on a throwing error by R.J. Schreck. After a 3-1 groundout by Machado moved Rock to third, Hernández reached base safely on an infield grounder to third which resulted in a throwing error by Ben Williamson. Rock was able to score on the play and increase the C’s lead to 3-0.
Everett was held off the scoreboard by Geison Urbaez for the first five innings and by Grayson Thurman in the sixth. The AquaSox would break through against Thurman in the seventh. Schreck drew a one-out walk and Bill Knight—who entered the game in right field in place of Colin Davis in the bottom of the sixth—recorded the Frogs first hit of the night by lining a single to left. Axel Sánchez then took Thurman deep for a three-run home run off the roof of the left field porch to tie the game at three.
The Frogs then took their first lead of the night against Anders Tolhurst in the top of the eighth. Brock Rodden drilled one to center field that Dasan Brown nearly snared after leaping in front of the manual scoreboard but he could not hang on. Rodden wound up at third on the play and he would tag up and score on a Josh Hood fly ball to right to put Everett up 4-3.
The C’s rallied in the eighth against Tyler Cleveland. The Frogs righthander had trouble harnessing his unorthodox delivery as he walked Jackson Hornung and Orf and drilled Rock in between to load the bases with nobody out. Machado produced a sacrifice fly to right after Knight’s throw was way too high to get a sliding Hornunga at the plate. Hernández then came through with an opposite-field seeing-eye single to right to score Orf with the go-ahead run.
Johnathan Lavallee was summoned from the bullpen to close it out in the top of the ninth. Things did not start off well for the righthander when he walked Sánchez on four straight pitches and fell behind 2-0 to Gabriel Moncada. That prompted a visit to the mound from pitching coach Austin Bibens-Dirkx. Whatever the former major leaguer said to Lavallee worked as he filled the strike zone on three consecutive pitches to strike out Moncada on a foul tip. Hernández then threw out Sánchez trying to steal second as Machado laid down the tag. Everett manager Ryan Scott felt Machado should have been called for defensive interference but the umpiring crew did not agree. The game looked to be over when Freuddy Batista hit what appeared to be a routine ground ball to short but the ball took a kangaroo hop over Nick Goodwin and Batista was credited with a single to left. Lavallee would nail down the save when he got Rodden to fly out to center for the 27th out. Tolhurst was awarded with the win.
C-Notes
Lost in the hoopla of the victory was Urbaez’s stellar performance on the mound. He navigated his way around a leadoff walk to Rodden and a two-out free pass to Williamson in the first inning. The Dominican righty then retired the next 11 hitters in a row, striking out Sánchez in the second and Rodden in the third. He fanned Sundstrom and Schreck to bookend the fourth and began the fifth with a punchout of Davis. Sánchez snapped the string with a walk but he would be the last baserunner for Urbaez.
Thurman struck out Rodden to begin a perfect sixth—though Rodden claimed he foul-tipped the pitch—and retired Williamson on a groundout to short to start the seventh. The former Lynchburg Hornet then issued a walk for the first time this season, ending a string of 12-1/3 frames without a base on balls as he lost Schreck on a 3-2 pitch. Over 13 innings this season, Thurman has a 17-1 K/BB total. That’ll play!
Vancouver’s first baserunners of the night happened with two outs in the first when Jace Bohrofen walked and Goodwin was hit by a pitch but neither of them would score.
The bottom of the fourth inning began with some controversy when Hornung struck out without a pitch being thrown. Home plate umpire Tyler Hovick ruled a batter pitch-clock violation against Hornung. That drew the ire of Hornung and C’s skipper Brent Lavallee who came out to argue the call.
A Hornung leadoff walk in the sixth against Juan Burgos led to nothing else but the C’s should have had a bases-loaded, one-out situation against Burgos in the seventh. A Brown walk and a Ryan McCarty single to left put the first two men on. Bohrofen should have joined them after chopping one out to second and beating the throw from Rodden, who bobbled the ball before making the throw. Replays on MiLB.TV showed Bohrofen was clearly safe but base umpire Jabril Geter-Abdullah called Bohrofen out. That got Brent Lavallee out of the dugout to argue again. Goodwin then lined one to third but Williamson made a diving catch toward the line to prevent one run scoring if not two.
Wednesday’s game marked the 2024 debut of the Canadians red, white and blue retro caps. The team had worn its red caps with the retro blue jerseys earlier in the season.
The third game of this series is set for Thursday at 7:05 p.m. That’s when Ryan Jennings is scheduled to throw the first pitch. Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges will have the broadcast for you from Nat Bailey Stadium on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Geison Urbaez had strikeouts of 90, 89, 87 and 85 and was up to 95 miles per hour. Grayson Thurman had a strikeout of 84 and was up to 93. Anders Tolhurst was at 88 and had a strikeout at 95. Johnathan Lavallee was at 82 to 95 with a strikeout of 94.
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