The Vancouver Canadians were swept in a doubleheader by losing 4-3 and 1-0 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday.
Game 1 Recap
Spokane scored the game’s first run in the top of the third with a two-out rally off Vancouver starter Carson Pierce. Dyan Jorge singled to right and stole second base before Kyle Karros and Jake Snider worked back-to-back walks to load the bases. The ball four pitch to Snider was questionable as it did catch the outside corner according to MiLB Gameday. Juan Guerrero beat out a ground ball to third as Glenn Santiago double-clutched on the throw and that allowed Jorge to score. Anders Tolhurst relieved Pierce and got Jack Blomgren to hit into an unassisted fielder’s choice at third base.
Spokane added to their lead in the fifth when Cole Carrigg hit a ground ball that handcuffed Peyton Williams at first and went down the right field line for a triple. Jorge then singled up the middle past Tolhurst on the mound to drive in Carrigg. Dylan Rock ran down a deep fly ball just inside the right field corner off the bat of Karros for the first out. Jorge stole second base and moved to third on a passed ball which was ball four to Snider. After a steal of second by Snider, Guerrero produced a sacrifice fly to center to score Jorge for a 3-0 advantage.
Vancouver would tie it when Spokane starter Chase Dollander battled some control issues in the bottom half of the fifth. He drilled Jamari Baylor and Nick Goodwin in the right elbow with one and two outs respectively. In between, Baylor stole second base and he would score when a Jackson Hornung ground ball went through the legs of Martin at first base. A passed ball by Bryant Betancourt and a Williams walk followed to load the bases which pushed Dollander out of the game after surpassing the 100-pitch mark. Carson Skipper struck out Santiago but a wild pitch and a throwing error by Betancourt allowed Goodwin and Hornung to score to tie the game at 3-3.
Spokane would regain the lead in the sixth against C’s reliever Alex Amalfi. Three straight one-out singles by Martin, Jesus Bugarin and Carrigg to left field,with the latter sneaking past a diving Goodwin at short, sent Martin home with the wining run.
Zach Agnos got the save with a perfect seventh inning that included one strikeout.
C-Notes
Dollander dominated the game early as he struck out the side in the first inning. He was consistently in the high-90 mile per hour range and touched 100 and 102. Combine that with off speed pitches in the high-70s and he had the C’s guessing wrong early and often.
Santiago had Vancouver’s first hit with a double to right field that eluded Snider but that two-out extra-base knock was all the C’s could manage thanks to another strikeout.
Dylan Rock singled to right to lead off the bottom of the third and stole second with one out before Baylor got on base with a walk. Dollander did not allow anything else to be put into play as he racked up two more whiffs.
The C’s had another opportunity against Dollander when Hornung doubled to center field. Jean Arnaez drew a two-out walk but Dollander got out of it with two more punchouts.
Rock had a leadoff walk against Skipper in the sixth but was forced out on a one-out Baylor 5-4 fielder’s choice.
Pierce began the game by striking out Carrigg and Jorge and stranded a Karros single to left in the first inning.
In the top of the second, Pierce limited the damage to a one-out single to center and a steal of second base by Blomgren.
Tolhurst retired the first four hitters he faced heading into the fifth. Among the outs was a nice sliding catch by Baylor in foul territory near the wall in left field to retire Martin in the fourth.
Amalfi faced the minimum three batters in the top of the seventh by getting Blomgren to ground out into a 5-4-3 double play to take care of a Guerrero one-out walk.
Game 2 Recap
Spokane got the game’s only run in the top of the eighth inning. C’s reliever Johnathan Lavallee mishandled a sacrifice bunt by Jean Perez and that put placed runner and pinch-runner Dyan Jorge at third. Jorge would come home on a Cole Carrigg 4-6 fielder’s choice.
The Canadians got placed runner Jace Bohrofen over to third when Jackson Hornung flew out to right filed in the bottom of the eighth. Spokane reliever Brayan Castillo struck out Nick Goodwin and took care of Glenn Santiago with a fly ball to center to end the game and pick up the save.
C-Notes
The second game of the doubleheader was slated to start at 4:15 p.m. on Friday but passing rain through the area pushed the start time back to 4:45 p.m.
Jack Blomgren blooped a single to center with one out in the top of the first against C’s starter Chris McElvain. The ball touched green between second baseman Jean Arnaez and center fielder Marcos De La Rosa. Blomgren stole second and Jake Snider drew a two-out walk but that was bracketed by McElvain whiffing Kyle Karros and Juan Guerrero to end the inning.
McElvain had a three-up, three-down second inning with started with a strikeout of José Cordova and ran it back with another perfect frame that began with a whiff of Perez. To be slightly different in the fourth inning, McElvain saved his strikeout at the end by fanning Guerrero to wrap up another perfect frame.
The top of the fifth inning saw McElvain’s string of 10 in a row retired end when Cordova flared a single to left to start the frame. Cordova was caught stealing one out later when McElvain waited him out and threw the ball to Arnaez at second for the 1-4 putout. José Ordoñez gave one a ride to left field but Rock made the catch at the warning track to complete the inning.
In the top of the sixth, Perez led off with a base hit to left field in the sixth off McElvain. Carrigg struck out but Perez was able to swipe second. Blomgren flew out to the warning track in left but Karros forced McElvain’s exit from the game as the 100th pitch of the game led to a walk. Lavallee took over on the slope and got Snider to ground out to second to keep Spokane off the board.
The seventh inning saw Guerrero get to first after an infield single to third and despite a stolen base, Lavallee struck out the side by sitting down Cordova, Martin and Ordoñez.
In the eighth, Lavallee added one more strikeout to his tally by fanning Karros to leave Carrigg at third base.
The C’s got their first two runners on in the bottom of the first inning. Spokane starter Braxton Hyde plunked Jackson Hornung in the forearm with two outs and walked Peyton Williams but that was all the C’s could get.
Dylan Rock nearly had his first home run of the season, which would have made for a great Rock & Hyde reference, but Snider tracked down the fly ball to left by making the catch at the warning track for the second out of the second inning.
Jamari Baylor got on base with a one-out walk in the bottom of the third and Peyton Williams banged a long single off the wall in right field for the first Vancouver hit to start the fourth. Williams would be forced out on a Santiago 6-4-3 double play to ruin that rally.
Rock singled up the middle against Spokane reliever Luis Amoroso to start the bottom of the fifth. Baylor walked with two outs but the C’s were turned away.
Davis Palermo yielded a one-out single to Williams but pinch-runner Nick Goodwin was out on the front end of a 5-4-3 DP by Santiago.
The C’s put together a two-out rally in the seventh when Jean Arnaez snuck a ball underneath Karros’ glove for an infield single to third. A wild pitch, a passed ball, a Marcos De La Rosa walk and a hit by pitch to Baylor’s arm loaded the bases but Bohrofen flew out to center.
Ryan Jennings gets the starting assignment for Vancouver on Saturday. He will throw the first pitch at 1:05 p.m. Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Carson Pierce was at 80 miles per hour with strikeouts at 95 and 83. Anders Tolhurst was 87-94 and Alex Amalfi was at 75-93.
Chris McElvain had punchouts at 90, 84, 89, 93, 94 and 90 while touching 95. Johnathan Lavallee was at 85 with Ks of 97, 87, 95 and 87.
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