It was a thumbs-up performance from Logan Warmoth and Nate Pearson Saturday.
The Vancouver Canadians were trying to blow out the Tri-City Dust Devils but had to hang on for a third one-run victory instead, pulling out a 5-4 win at Nat Bailey Stadium Saturday night. The result guarantees the C’s of another series victory in the cozy confines of The Nat as they evened their second half record at three wins and three losses.
Nate Pearson rears back for a 101 MPH fastball in the first inning.
Nate Pearson set the tone early with a called strike against Robbie Podorsky in his Nat Bailey Stadium debut and retired him on a fly ball to right. Justin Lopez grounded out to third before Luis Almanzar went down swinging to complete a 12-pitch first inning.
Pearson got Luis Ascunsion on a flyout to left to begin the second but Tre Carter was able to turn one around by grounding one up the middle for the Dust Devils first hit. Kelvin Melean flied out to right on the next pitch and five pitches later, Pearson rung up Chris Mattison on his 10th pitch of the inning.
Brody Rodning pitched three innings to record his second win of the season.
Lefthander Brody Rodning replaced Pearson in the third and matched Pearson’s strikeout total just two batters in as he sat down Greg Lambert and Jalen Washington. Podorsky would single but Rodning retired Lopez on a grounder to second to keep the Dust Devils off the board.
Kacy Clemens smacked a two-run double off the wall in right-center field in the third inning.
Vancouver only got a Cullen Large base hit over the first two frames but designated hitter Matt Morgan began the third with a walk against Thomas Cosgrove. Brandon Polizzi beat out a groundball to short for an infield single and Reggie Pruitt kept it in the infield with a bunt single to the mound to load the bases. Large hit a soft liner to second for the first out. Logan Warmoth then lifted a medium fly ball to right and manager Rich Miller decided to gamble by sending Morgan home from third and the gamble paid off as Morgan slid home safely, eluding the tag of Washington to score the game’s first run. Washington argued with the home plate umpire that he tagged Morgan but his version of the truth was skewed as the TV replay showed all he tagged was air. Two more infield singles produced the second and third runs as Riley Adams scored Polizzi and David Jacob plated Pruitt. Kacy Clemens then crushed a double off the wall in right-center field to score Adams and Jacob, making it 5-0 C’s.
Rodning took care of the first two hitters of the fourth but Carter tripled to right by sending one over the head of Jacob who appeared to misread the fly ball. A passed ball by Adams allowed Carter to cross home with Tri-City’s first run of the game. Vancouver tried to get that run back when Pruitt worked a two-out walk but he was picked off at first base to end the bottom of the fourth.
The top of the fifth started with Rodning striking out Mattison and getting Washington to pop out to second to sandwich a single up the middle by Lambert. Rodning threw a wild pitch to put Lambert into scoring position and he would score on an infield single by Podorsky as his sharp grounder to short handcuffed Warmoth on a short hop and was charged with a tough error as a result.
Warmoth would collect his first hit of the night on a sharp grounder up the middle with one away but Adams and Jacob both went down swinging against Andres Munoz, who also reached triple digits on the radar gun.
Brandon Polizzi—after scoring a run—made a key defensive play in the sixth to keep the Dust Devils at bay.
Grayson Huffman entered the game in the top of the sixth and had trouble finding the strike zone by walking the two Luises, Alamanzar and Ascunsion. Carter forced out Ascunsion at second before Melean lined one to left that had extra-bases all over it but Polizzi made a tremendous running catch near the short wall in left field, limiting the damage to a sacrifice fly that brought in Ascunsion with Tri-City’s third run. Carter would steal second but Huffman struck out Mattison looking to send the game to the home half of the sixth.
Trevor Megill took care of the C’s by striking out the side in order to put his team back on offence. Huffman struck out Lambert and got Washington to ground out to third but Podorsky would triple to right field and score on a Lopez base hit to center. A passed ball by Adams advanced Lopez to second and Almanzar got aboard when he nailed base umpire Mitch Wilson in the shoulder with a sharply hit ball at short.
Brayden Bouchey stranded two runners with his inning-ending strikeout in the sixth.
Brayden Bouchey relieved Huffman and despite a wild pitch to push the runners to second and third, the pride of White Rock, BC struck out Ascunsion to keep the C’s up by one.
Megill continued to dominate on the mound by adding two more strikeouts as Polizzi and Pruitt went down chasing. Large ended the strikeout swing by making solid contact but he flied out to right for another 1-2-3 inning.
Chris Hall had to get six outs for his first Northwest League save.
Chris Hall got the call to the bullpen to begin the eighth and overcame a Melean one-out single and two-out stolen base to strike out the side—getting Carter, Mattison and Lambert all swinging. For Madison, the strikeout gave him the golden sombrero. Warmoth reached on a fielding error by reliever Jose Galindo to start the bottom of the eighth and got to second on Galindo’s errant pickoff throw but Galindo would strike out the side by getting Adams and Clemens looking and Jacob swinging in between.
Even though Orlando Pascual was getting ready in the bullpen, Hall came back out for the ninth with a different outfield alignment as Jacob was replaced in right by Polizzi with Norberto Obeso taking over in left. Hall walked the .135-hitting Washington to start the ninth and Podorsky laid down a bunt single to get Washington over to third after he had stolen second. The noose began to tighten on Hall when Podorsky swiped second, resulting in the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. The Dust Devils were poised to tie it or win it with the infield now drawn in. Lopez tried to loop one over the diamond but Deiferson Barreto chased it down near the third base line for the crucial first out. That gave Hall a new lease on life as he rung up Almanzar for the second out before striking out Ascunsion swinging to preserve the C’s one-run victory.
There was a seven-way tie for the Vancouver hit lead as nobody recorded a multi-hit game. Pruitt was the only one to reach twice by adding a walk and Clemens had the only extra-base knock. The C’s went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position, leaving nine men on.
Pearson struck out two over his two one-hit innings and Rodning rung up four over three frames in which he gave up two runs, one of them earned. Huffman had two K’s but gave up three runs on two hits and two walks over 1-2/3 innings. Bouchey struck out the only man he faced and Hall struck out five to offset two hits and a walk over the final two frames. That gave the C’s a 14-3 K/BB total as Rodning earned the victory, Huffman and Bouchey were awarded with a hold and Hall got the save.
Radar Gun Rundown
Nate Pearson reached 101 miles per hour on the radar gun and hit the century mark two other times. His strike velocites were 97 and 98 and had offspeed pitches measured at 77 and 82.
Brody Rodning was in the 78-93 MPH range with strikeouts of 92, 92, 88 and 93. His offspeed stuff was in the 80-82 range.
Grayson Huffman went as low as 82 and 84 and as high as 99. His lone strikeout was at 95. He also hit 94, 96 and 97.
Brayden Bouchey dialed it up to 92 to strike out the only batter he faced. His other pitches were at 87, 80 and 79.
Chris Hall was in the 79-94 range with strikeouts at 90, 92, 91 and 91 and also checked in at 81.
C-Notes
2012 C’s pitcher Taylor Cole pitched two shutout innings with two strikeouts while Roemon Fields (2014) stole his 28th base of the year but Buffalo lost to Louisville.
Daniel Young (2015) struck out three over 2-1/3 shutout innings and Justin Shafer (2014) had one strikeout in a clean frame but New Hampshire was beaten by Binghamton.
D.J. Davis (2012) was 3-for-4 with two RBI, Michael De La Cruz (2014) had two hits and a walk and Connor Panas (2015) added two hits as Dunedin stormed back to beat the Florida Fire Frogs. Dan Lietz (2014-2015-2016) pitched two shutout innings while Jackson McClelland (2015-2016) earned the win with two shutout frames as he overcame three hits with five punchouts.
Josh Palacios (2016) had two hits and Kyle Weatherly (2017) gave up just one run over five innings on five hits and two walks while striking out four but Lansing was swamped by Great Lakes.
2017 C’s Chavez Young and Yorman Rodriguez both went 4-for-8 and Francisco Rodriguez doubled in four at-bats but Bluefield lost to Pulaski in the front end and back end of a doubleheader.
Congratulations to 2015 C’s righthander Conor Fisk for capturing Pitcher of the Week honours in the Florida State League.
Congrats to Conor Fisk, the Florida State League Pitcher of the Week! pic.twitter.com/iIMu1UnvvD
— Dunedin Blue Jays (@DunedinBlueJays) July 29, 2017
Fisk earned the award with eight shutout innings of one-hit ball against Lakeland July 21. He has a 5-9 record with a 4.34 earned run average with Dunedin this season.
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