The Vancouver Canadians began another road series with a walk-off loss. The Spokane Indians walked off the C’s with a 7-6 win in 10 innings at Avista Stadium Wednesday.
Derwin Barreto began the game with an infield single to short that was initially ruled an error by Ronny Brito. Blaine Crim then took Alek Manoah deep to left field for a two-run homer. Manoah would hit Luis Ascunsion two pitches later but would get out of the first without further damage.
Brito put the first dent in the run and hit columns for Vancouver with a solo blast to right to begin the third off Teodoro Ortega.
Spokane would surge ahead 5-1 when Crim homered again, this time for a three-run shot off William Gaston in the fifth. Crim’s dinger came with two outs after Jake Hoover‘s leadoff walk and Cristian Inoa‘s base hit to short started the inning.
The Vancouver bats had only Brito’s home run to show for their efforts in the fifth before finally coming to life in the sixth. Brett Wright greeted Juan Mejia with an infield single to second. A Tanner Morris single and an error by Alexander Ovalles in left put two runners in scoring position. A Trevor Schwecke groundout to first scored Wright but Philip Clarke grounded out to short to leave Morris at third.
Josh Almonte came into the game in the seventh and handed out free passes to Barreto and Kenen Irizarry. A 6-4-3 double play ball off the bat of Crim saw Barreto make it to third and he would score on a two-out double by Starling Joseph to make it a 6-2 game.
Wright kick-started another rally in the eighth inning with a one-out base hit to left field and pulled into second on a Mejia wild pitch. Luis De Los Santos would score Wright with a double to left. Morris heard ball four and he and De Los Santos would score on a two-out double by Clarke. Nick Starr replaced Mejia and gave up a run-scoring double to McGregory Contreras to tie the game at 6-6. Will Robertson followed with a walk but Cameron Eden hit into a fielder’s choice to end the rally.
The C’s had a chance to take the lead in the top of the 10th. De Los Santos made it to third on a Morris ground ball to first. Josh Smith gave Schwecke a free pass to set up a potential double play but he did not need to do so after freezing Clarke with a called strike three before Contreras grounded out to second.
Mike Pascoe tried to keep Spokane off the board in the 10th. He got Joseph to ground out for out number one and walked David Garcia intentionally to set up a double play with Crim already at second base to start the frame. Pascoe got a ground ball but De Los Santos mishandled it at third. One pitch later, Ovalles stepped up and singled to score Crim with the winning run.
C-Notes
The loss overshawdowed the fine work done by Luke Gillingham in relief. The former Navy lefty overcame a two-out double in the eighth by Hoover to strike out the side swinging before retiring the side in order in the ninth, finishing up with two more punchouts.
After a bumpy first, Manoah gave up just one more hit the rest of the way over his three innings on a two-out single by Crim. He struck out Barreto to begin the third and struck out Joseph—pinch-hitting for Ascunsion—to end the third.
Gaston went the next three innings and was able to overcome base hits in the fourth and sixth, the former after an inning-ending from Ovalles before the fateful fifth. The Cuban coughed up five hits and a walk with one strikeout.
Vancouver manager Casey Candaele was ejected by base umpire Nick McFarland during the seventh inning stretch.
Vancouver and Spokane will renew hostilities again Thursday in a 6:30 pm first pitch at Avista Stadium. Joshua Javier gets the ball for Spokane. Adam Kloffenstein is the listed starter for Vancouver. The game can be heard on Sportsnet 650 and CanadiansBaseball.com.
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