The Vancouver Canadians skipped past the Hillsboro Hops 2-0 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday.
The C’s took the lead in the fourth against Hops starter Evan Short. A one-out Peyton Williams walk was moved to second after Hillsboro second baseman Manny Peña muffed a ground ball allowing Jackson Hornung to get aboard. A Christian Cerda passed ball moved the runners up before Je’Von Ward put a ball in a play for a 6-5 fielder’s choice to score Williams.
Vancouver added an insurance in the eighth against lefty Carlos Meza. Jommer Hernández drew a leadoff walk and Marcos De La Rosa was summoned to pinch-run for the C’s catcher. Estiven Machado grounded out to first to move De La Rosa to second and De La Rosa stole third base on a bang-bang play. Jamari Baylor produced a sacrifice fly to left to cash in De La Rosa.
Lazaro Estrada shut down the Hops for the first seven innings before Grayson Thurman and Conor Larkin finished it off in the eighth and ninth.
Former Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Orlando Hudson threw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to his autograph session at Nat Bailey Stadium. The ‘O-Dog’ now works for the Arizona Diamondbacks as a Player Development Assistant.
C-Notes
A one-out infield single to short by Peña that Nick Goodwin could only make a diving stop on and a walk to Jack Hurley put Estrada in an early jam. He stranded the runners by striking out Gavin Conticello and retiring Cerda on a fly ball to center.
Estrada finished a three-up, three-down second inning by striking out Wyatt Crenshaw and fanned Juan Corniel and Peña to begin and end the third. In the middle, Baylor made a nice running catch in foul territory close to the Canadians third base dugout to retire Jean Walters.
Hurley started the fourth inning with a base hit to right field but had to hold his ground when Jace Bohrofen made a diving catch in center to take away a hit from Conticello. Cerda lifted a pop fly to second in which Williams and Machado nearly collided but it was Machado who made the catch for the second out. Hurley swiped second base on a delayed steal and went to third on a Hernández throwing error but Estrada struck out Junior Franco to keep the Hops at bay.
Hillsboro got a leadoff double to center from Kevin Sim in the fifth inning but Hernández picked Sim off at second. Estrada proceeded to retire the next two hitters, striking out Crenshaw and getting Corniel to fly out to right.
The Hops got another leadoff man aboard in the sixth when Walters singled on Estrada’s first pitch. Peña tagged up to go to second base after Dylan Rock made a nice running catch in foul territory along right field. Estrada balked Peña to third but a running catch towards right-center by Bohrofen off the bat of Conticello turned the Hops away again.
Estrada finished up his outing with a 1-2-3 seventh inning that featured a punchout of Cerda.
Thurman struck out Corniel looking to start the eighth but yielded a single to left. The inning ending when Thurman fanned Walters and Hernández threw out Corniel trying to steal for a 2-6 putout.
Larkin fielded his position to handle a Peña comebacker to the mound before whiffing Hurley and Conticello to get the save.
Bohrofen drew the C’s first walk with one out in the first inning and stole second base with two away before Short got out of the inning. Hernández had the first Vancouver hit with a base knock to right but only got as far as second on a Machado tapper in front of home plate.
Hernández had the only other hit in the fifth inning with a leadoff single up the middle and Bohrofen was hit by a pitch between the shoulder blades to start the sixth. Both of those baserunners were erased on double plays.
The C’s made three defensive changes for the bottom of the ninth. Robert Brooks caught the final frame with De La Rosa taking over in center field and Bohrofen moving to right.
Congratulations to Lazaro Estrada for winning the Northwest League Pitcher of the Week award for June 17-23. The 25-year-old from Cuba set the bar early for the award with a complete-game seven-inning no-hitter at Tri-City on Tuesday. His fellow Cuban Rafael Sánchez did his best to best Estrada when he struck out 12 Dust Devils at Gesa Stadium on Sunday.
Continuing on the theme of Cuban hurdlers , congratulations to 2022 Canadians righthander Yosver Zulueta as he has been called up to the Cincinnati Reds. The 26-year-old Cuban 2-0 with a 2.93 ERA with a save and two holds in 30-2/3 innings with Triple-A Louisville. Zulueta—who was designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays on March 28 and picked up by Cincinnati just days after—struck out 39 batters and walked 20 with the Bats.
To complete the Cuban quadfecta, lefthander Kendry Rojas has begun his rehab assignment with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays. The 21-year-old put together three shutout innings with five strikeouts against the FCL Phillies on Tuesday. Rojas made just two appearances with his last one coming back on April 10 when he tossed five scoreless stanzas in his Nat Bailey Stadium debut against Hillsboro on April 10.
2022 C’s second baseman Miguel Hiraldo has been promoted from Double-A New Hampshire to Triple-A Buffalo. In 45 games with the Fisher Cats, he batted. 227 with nine extra-base hits, including a homer, and drove in 16 runs.
C-Changes
The Canadians have a new pitcher on the roster. Righthander Aaron Munson has been promoted from Low-A Dunedin. The 22-year-old from San Antonio, Texas was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 19th round last year out of Angelo State. That’s the same college 2017 C’s pitcher Matt Shannon attended after he was selected in the 12th round of that year’s draft. The 5-foot-10, 180-pound hurler made his pro debut with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays in 2023 before going up to Dunedin to finish his first year as a pro. Munson returned to Dunedin for 2024 and posted a 3.03 earned run average and a 41-14 K/BB total in 29-2/3 innings. He also picked up two holds and converted both of his save opportunities.
Munson will wear number 10 for Vancouver, previously worn by righthander Anders Tolhurst who has three strikeouts in three shutout innings spanning two appearances so far with Double-A New Hampshire.
Utilityman Jeff Wehler is off the injured list and has been added back to the Vancouver roster. Catcher José Ferrer has been activated from the Development List and assigned to Dunedin.
Radar Gun Rundown
Lazaro Estrada was at 78-95 with one pitch reading at 99 miles per hour. He had strikeouts at 82, 95, 93,88, 95, 87 and 88. Grayson Thurman had a strikeout at 84 and Conor Larkin had one at 90 and was at 88-97.
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