The Vancouver Canadians have evened up their series with the Eugene Emeralds at two games apiece with a 9-1 triumph at P.K. Park Friday.
Vancouver scored first with a run in the third inning off Aaron Phillips. Eric Rivera began the frame with a double to right-center field that just eluded a diving Ismael Munguia. Rivera would come in to score on a two-out base hit by Tanner Morris that got past a diving Tyler Fitzgerald at second.
The C’s added two more runs in the fourth when Spencer Horwitz walked on four straight pitches from Phillips. Sebastian Espino bunted Horwitz over to second before Ronny Brito hit a hanging breaking ball one over the wall in left field for a two-run home run.
The Emeralds got to Vancouver starter Luis Quinones for a run in the bottom of the fourth. Armani Smith picked up a leadoff walk, went to second on a Logan Wyatt base hit and advanced to third on a fly ball by Tyler Fitzgerald. Franklin Labour took Quinones to deep center field where Cameron Eden made a leaping catch at the wall to prevent at least extra bases if not a three-run homer. Smith tagged up and scored to break the goose egg.
Vancouver began to put the game away in the seventh inning. Philip Clarke heard ball four from the home plate umpire to start the proceedings and stole second base. D.J. Neal then hit a double that a diving Munguia could not hang on to in center and that allowed Clarke to score the C’s fourth run.
Jasier Herrera took over for Phillips and he would walk Morris with two outs before giving up an RBI single to Eden up the middle to make it a 5-1 game.
Horwitz loaded the bases with an infield single to second as Fitzgerald’s diving stop prevented Neal from scoring. Espino would ground out to Fitzgerald to end the rally.
Herrera got two outs on three pitches to begin the eighth but Rivera extended the inning with a full-count walk. Neal singled off the glove off Wilson at short that allowed Rivera to get to third. Luis De Los Santos then launched a three-run home run to extend the Vancouver lead to seven.
The final run of the game came in the top of the ninth. Horwitz’s one out walk was erased on an Espino fielder’s choice at second but Espino scored all the way from first on a Brito double to center that was in and out of the glove of Flores in left-center.
C-Notes
There was a scary moment in the top of the third when Emeralds catcher Brandon Matarano was hi in the head by a Quinones pitch. Matarano was able to walk off the field but he was replaced by Robert Emery who went on to enjoy a 2-for-3 night at the plate.
Quinones allowed one run on two hits and five walks over five innings, striking out 10 to even his record to 2-2. He struck out the side in the first, third and fifth innings. One of the strikeouts was registered at 80 miles per hour as he used his breaking ball to great effect to get eight of his 10 K’s swinging.
Horwitz helped Quinones first strike out of the night when he corralled a wide throw from Clarke at first base to complete the 2-3 strikeout. Clarke was on the money when he threw out Wyatt trying to steal second base in the second inning. Quinones also got help from Rivera when he robbed Tyler Flores of a three-run homer to right to end the inning, making a catch to prevent the ball from clearing the waist-high fence.
Alex Nolan and Cobi Johnson shut down the Em’s with two shutout frames apiece by allowing just one hit and one walk. Nolan struck out one to earn a hold while Johnson struck out a pair.
De Los Santos, Morris, Neal and Brito had all two-hit nights. De Los Santos got the first hit of the game when he led off with a check-swing single to right. He drove in three runs along with Brito. Vancouver was 6-for-12 with runners in scoring position and scored four of their runs with two outs.
The Emeralds celebrated Pride Night to honour the LGBTQIA+ community with rainbow bases along with rainbow lettering and numbers on their home white uniforms that looked pretty sharp.
Paxton Schultz will start the penultimate game of this series for Monty’s Mounties. First pitch on MiLB.TV and CanadiansBaseball.com is 7:05 pm.
The Canadians are 2-1/2 games back of Eugene for first place in the High-A West League and two games back of Everett in second.
C’s Alumni Report
Buffalo blew an 8-6 lead and lost in Syracuse 9-8.
- Richard Ureña (2014) 2/5, RBI
- Nash Knight (2016) 1/5, RBI double
- Jonathan Davis (2014) 1/2, 2 BB, HBP, SB
- Rowdy Tellez (2014) 1/4, RBI double, BB
New Hampshire grabbed a 10-0 lead and held on for a 10-8 win in Bowie.
- L.J. Talley (2021) 1/2, 3R HR, 3 BB
- Vinny Capra (2018) 2/5, 3B
- Chavez Young (2017) 1/4 BB
- Tanner Kirwer (2018, 2021) 0-2, 2 BB, 2 SB
- Reggie Pruitt (2017) 0/3, BB
- Brody Rodning (2017) 0.1IP 2H 0R 1BB SV
Toronto’s bullpen let another one get away as they lost to Baltimore 6-5 in 10 innings.
- Alek Manoah (2019) 6IP 4H 1R 0ER 2BB 6K
- Tim Mayza (2014) 1IP 0H 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
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