The Vancouver Canadians were blanked 1-0 by the Spokane Indians at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday.
The only run of the game was scored by Spokane in the top of the fifth inning. Juan Guerrero singled to right field off C’s starter Lazaro Estrada as Jace Bohrofen could only trap the ball after trying to make a diving catch. A wild pitch and a Jack Blomgren single to left got Guerrero over to third. Bryan Betancourt then bunted the ball up the first base line. Estrada could not make a clean grab of the ball and by the time he gathered it in, he could only make the throw to first for a 1-3 putout and that allowed Guerrero to cross the plate.
Victor Juarez blanked the C’s for the first six innings and the trio of Braxton Hyde, Carson Skipper and Zach Agnos teamed up for the final three frames of shutout ball.
C-Notes
Lazaro Estrada deserved a better fate after allowing just one run over five frames. He gave up a single to center to Dyan Jorge with one out in the first but Glenn Santiago threw out Jorge going for a double on an 8-6 putout. The inning ended on a Kyle Karros strikeout.
Estrada struck out the side by sitting down Jake Snider, Blomgren and Guerrero in the second and began the third by getting Betancourt and Robby Martin Jr. looking. José Cordova had a base hit to left but that was all Spokane would manage.
The fourth inning was another strike-out-the-size stanza for Estrada as he fanned Jorge, Karros and Snider. Fittingly on Dog Day, Estrada K’d 9. K-9? Canine? Get it? That was brought up by C’s play-by-play man Tyler Zickel on Tuesday’s broadcast through vice president of sales and marketing Walter Cosman.
Grayson Thurman turned in a perfect sixth inning by striking out Cole Carrigg to begin the inning and Karros to end it. The pitch before the last punchout saw catcher Jommer Hernández trying to call time as the pitch clock was winding down. Hernandez began to head towards the mound when Thurman followed through on the pitch which sailed over the head of a none-too-pleased Karros.
Snider singled to left off Thurman to start the seventh but Thurman nearly doubled off Snider when he caught a bunt pop-up from Guerrero. After striking out Blomgren for the second out, Snider tried to score on a Betancourt single to right but he was thrown out at the plate on a 9-6-2 play started by Jace Bohrofen.
Jamari Baylor was the C’s first hitter to reach base when he was plunked on the left elbow with two outs in the first. He was later thrown out trying to steal second by Cordova for a 2-6 putout. Baylor—who played for Spokane last season—got aboard again in the fourth with a two-out walk.
Jackson Hornung had Vancouver’s first hit with a single to right in the third inning but was nearly thrown out after thinking about going for two.
Hornung started the fifth with a base knock to right and Estiven Machado walked with two outs but they were stranded after Jean Arnaez rapped into a 6-4-3 double play.
Vancouver hit three balls hard in the sixth but had nothing to show for it as Bohrofen was robbed of a hit on a diving catch by Guerrero in left-center field. Nick Goodwin was denied of a hit as he was retired on a fly ball to left short of the warning track. Peyton Williams then hit one to the warning track in center for the third out.
Hornung reached base again courtesy of a fielding error by Blomgren at second in the seventh inning but Hyde got Santiago hit into an 5-4-3 nning-ending double play.
Hernández led off the eighth with a single to right field against Skipper and Arnaez had a base hit to left with one away but nothing came out of that.
Agnos fell behind Baylor 3-0 before Baylor flew out to right for the first out of the ninth. Hornung got aboard again on an infield single to first with two away. Marcos De La Rosa was brought in to pinch-run but Santiago was retired on a fly ball to center to end the game.
De La Rosa returns to Vancouver after ending the 2023 season with the club. It’s his fourth team this season as the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native has been with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays, the Dunedin Blue Jays and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The 22-year-old De La Rosa was placed on the seven-day injured list back on May 14. De La Rosa made his Double-A debut on June 9 and drew a walk. He posted an on-base percentage of .362 and hit two home runs in 15 games with Dunedin. He has been given number 9.
De La Rosa has been brought over as Dasan Brown is expected to miss some time after getting plunked in the ribs by a pitch in Everett on Sunday.
The attendance was 5,303 humans and 592 dogs for Tuesday’s Dog Day of Summer. Anthem singer Emma Currie was accompanied by her dog Louie who was a good boy in a reprise of the 2022 Dog Day of Summer at The Nat. Louie was dressed to the nines with a Toronto Blue Jays sweater. That’s just good puppy parenting!
All the best to 2016 C’s second baseman Cavan Biggio as he has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers after being designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays. Minor league righthander Braydon Fisher is headed to Toronto.
Pat Gallagher gets the ball next for Vancouver on Wednesday and will fire the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. at Nat Bailey Stadium. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges handling the play-by-play.
Radar Gun Rundown
Lazaro Estrada was at 79-97 miles per hour with strikeouts of 89, 85, 94, 90, 97, 81, 92, 95 and 94. Grayson Thurman terminated batters at 83, 87 and 83 and was up to 92. Anders Tolhurst was at 87-95.
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