The Vancouver Canadians lost a 10-inning affair to the Spokane Indians 5-4 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Sunday.
The C’s responded first against Spokane starter Ryan Rolison in the first. Jace Bohrofen doubled to center field with one out and was driven home by a Jackson Hornung home run to left-center to make it 2-0 Vancouver.
Spokane would even things up in the top of the third against C’s starter Rafael Sánchez. Cole Carrigg singled to center with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch, stole third when Jorge went down swinging and came home when Jommer Hernández‘s throw from behind the plate went into left field for an error. Kyle Karros then got an infield single to third, swiped second and scored on a Jake Snider single up the gut to tie the game at 2-2. Snider would swipe second as well before Juan Guerrero flew out to center.
Vancouver grabbed the lead again against Spokane reliever Connor Staine as Peyton Williams clubbed a one-out home run to right-center field to put the C’s up 4-2 in the bottom of the fourth.
The lead did not last long as Spokane started the top of the fifth with a Jesus Bugarin double to left field after a 10-pitch at-bat. Bugarin got to third on a Carrigg single to short before Sánchez induced a ‘look what I found’ double play. The Cuban hurler snared a comebacker behind his back and began a 1-6-3 double play. Unfortunately, that resulted in Bugarin scoring the tying run.
Spokane took its first lead of the game in the top of the eighth against C’s reliever Johnathan Lavallee. A Guerrero single to left with one out was thrown out trying to steal second by Hernández on a 2-4 play but Snider walke
The Canadians forced the game into overtime in the bottom of the ninth when Dylan Rock drilled one just off the glove of a leaping Guerrero against the left field fence to tie the game at 4-4. The one-out solo blast off Spokane lefty Carson Skipper was Rock’s first Northwest League home run.
With Jorge starting the top of the 10th inning at second, he was joined on the base paths by Karros who was drilled in the back by a Josh Mollerus pitch. A wild pitch moved the two runners up 90 feet and after a Snider strikeout, Guerrero produced a sacrifice fly to right to score Jorge with the winning run. Mollerus struck out Blomgren to end the inning.
Skipper finished the job in the bottom of the 10th as placed runner Estiven Machado never left second base. A Hornung fly out to right for the third out set off the Spokane celebration of clinching a playoff berth. That marks the second year in a row the first-half Northwest League playoff spot was clinched on Father’s Day at Nat Bailey Stadium.
C-Notes
After a 94-minute rain delay, Spokane got a runner in scoring position in the first inning when Jorge walked with one out, went to second on a wild pitch and got to third on a Karros fly out to right. Snider hit a ground ball to first and Williams just barely won the foot race to the bag to keep Spokane off the board.
Sánchez walked Guerrero to begin the second inning before inducing a 6-4 fielder’s choice from Blomgren. Cordova got Blomgren to second with a base knock to right before Martin grounded into a 3-6-3 inning-ending double play.
A 1-2-3 inning for Sánchez came in the fourth which began with a strikeout of Blomgren. Sánchez allowed an infield single to short with one out in the sixth by fanning Blomgren and Cordova to end his outing.
Grayson Thurman took over for Sánchez in the seventh and got into trouble when he walked Robby Martin Jr. who was bunted over to second by Bugarin. Thurman struck out Carrigg before a Jorge infield single to third kept the inning going. The inning ended when Karros hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
Mollerus pitched a perfect ninth that was bookended by strikeouts of Bugarin and Jorge.
Williams had a base hit to right with two outs in the first inning and Bohrofen did likewise with one out in the third but neither came in to score. Bohrofen was called out for getting tangled up with Martin at first trying before catching Hornung’s pop-up. Spokane manager Robinson Cancel argued with base umpire Spencer Kim that a double play should have been called. It did not matter in the end anyway as Hornung was picked off moments later by Rolison to end the inning.
Je’Von Ward followed Williams’ homer with an infield single to short in the fourth inning but he was thrown out on a steal attempt of second just after Rock struck out to end the inning.
Hernández had a base hit to right to start the fifth but he would go nowhere else. A two-out rally in the sixth that saw Williams single to right and Ward walk were also stranded.
Nick Goodwin had a two-out single to center in the eighth but Staine again kept the C’s off the board.
The Canadians are five games below .500 and will finish the first half with a losing record. A 3-16 mark against Spokane was their downfall. The first half of the season will conclude on Thursday with the second half beginning on Friday.
That will all take place in Tri-City this week as the Canadians will play a doubleheader at Gesa Stadium on Tuesday. Lazaro Estrada and Carson Pierce are on the bump for the C’s. The first game is set for 4:15 p.m. and is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
C-Changes
Congratulations to 2023-2024 C’s righthander Anders Tolhurst who has been promoted to Double-A New Hampshire. The winning pitcher of the clinching Game 4 of the Northwest League Championship Series against Everett was 4-1 with a 1.73 earned run average, three saves and 28 strikeouts against five walks over 26 innings. The 24-year-old was a 23rd round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2019 out of Grossmont College.
2022-2023 righty Eric Pardinho is moving on to Triple-A Buffalo after a stellar start to the year with New Hampshire. The 23-year-old Brazilian posted a 1.01 ERA and one save with 37 Ks against 10 free passes over 26-1/3 innings with the Fisher Cats.
2022-2023 northpaw Dahian Santos is on a rehab assignment with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays. He made his season debut on Saturday with two shutout innings with four strikeouts and a walk against the FCL Phillies.
2023 infielder Cade Doughty is starting back up again at the FCL and had three hits in the aforementioned game on Saturday, including a double. The former LSU Tiger played just four games with the Dunedin Blue Jays before going on the shelf.
Two members of the 2021 Hillsboro Canadians are now with the Toronto Blue Jays. Lefthander Brandon Eisert was called up to replace injured reliever Jimi Garcia and infielder Orelvis Martinez is also going to Hogtown in place of injured shortstop Bo Bichette. Eisert pitched two shutout innings during the Jays loss to Boston on Monday. The 26-year-old was drafted by Toronto in the 18th round of 2019 out of Oregon State. He is wearing number 60.
Radar Gun Rundown
Rafael Sanchez was at 82-93 miles per hour with strikeouts at 93, 93 and 87. Grayson Thurman was at 85 with a strikeout of 93. Johnathan Lavallee was at 87-95. Josh Mollerus had strikeouts of 85, 86, 84 and 85 and was up to 92.
C-Tweets
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