The Vancouver Canadians won a series opener for just the third time in nine tries after dumping the Spokane Indians 9-3 at Ron Tonkin Field Tuesday.
The C’s wasted little time against Spokane lefty Breiling Eusebio in the first inning. Rafael Lantigua lined Eusebio’s first pitch to left field and Tanner Morris doubled to center to push Lantigua to third. Sebastian Espino followed with a ground-rule double to right to score Lantigua and Morris. Espino made it to third when Ryan Gold reached on a fielding error by Michael Toglia at first. Luis De Los Santos lofted a sacrifice fly to right that allowed Espino cross the plate to give Vancouver a 3-0 lead.
Spokane picked up their first run in the second against C’s righty Adam Kloffenstein. Brenton Doyle got to second base after an infield single to third and a throwing error by John Aiello. Doyle would score on a two-out base hit by Cade Harris.
The Canadians would pile on Eusebio in the bottom of the frame. Eric Rivera and Lantigua were handed leadoff walks and a Morris double to right tho score those walks to make it 5-1 Vancouver. A two-out base to center by De Los Santos scored Morris. De Los Santos got into scoring position by stealing second base and he would complete his 360-foot journey to the plate when Aiello singled to left. That knocked Eusebio out of the game.
The top of the fifth saw Spokane get one run back against Kloffenstein. Jack Blomgren was hit by pitch, moved to second on an Isaac Collins double and scored on an RBI groundout to short by Aaron Schunk.
Spokane reduced the deficit to four in the eighth against Connor Law. Base hits by Niko Decolati and Hunter Stovall came with one out before a Javier Guerra groundout to short brought Stovall home.
After being shut down by Jared Biddy and Trent Fennell over the course of five innings, the C’s did get to Fennell in the eighth. Lantigua got it started with a one-out walk and he got to third on a throwing error by Guerra after stealing second base. Morris drove in Lantigua again with a base knock for Vancouver’s eighth run. A two-out double by Gold allowed Morris to come home all the way from first.
C-Notes
Spokane manager Scott Little was ejected from the game by base umpire Nathan Diederich as Little believed Harris should have been awarded a home run instead of a ground-rule double to left field off Alex Nolan in the seventh inning. Harris would be thrown out at third base on a 6-5 ground ball by Blomgren to short as De Los Santos started the 6-5 play in which Aiello tagged out Harris.
The top third of the Vancouver batting order got it done by going a combined 7-for-13 with two walks. Lantigua was 2-for-3 with two walks, three runs scored and his ninth stolen base of the year in the leadoff spot. He was in right field after making three starts in center field in the wake of Cameron Eden being placed on the seven-day injured list.
Morris rolled threes in the runs, hits and runs batted in columns on the box score in five at-bats. Espino had a double, a single and two RBI to increase his hitting streak to seven games.
De Los Santos also had a two-hit night and drove home a pair of runs. Rivera singled, walked and scored a run.
Aiello has a hit in his first five games with Vancouver with his RBI single in the second. The former Wake Forest Demon Deacon is hitting .333 so far.
Spencer Horwitz reached the 40-walk plateau for the season, which ties him with Eugene’s Logan Wyatt for the High-A West lead.
Andres Guerra went 0-for-4 but helped guide the pitching trio of Kloffenstein, Nolan and Law from behind the plate.
Kloffenstein improved his record to 3-4 after throwing five innings of two-run ball over 92 pitches, 55 for strikes. He allowed four hits and two walks but struck out five batters and recorded nine groundball outs.
Nolan worked around two hits and a walk, striking out one in two shutout innings. Law gave up a run on two hits and two walks but rung up four over the last two frames.
The Canadians are now 28-27 on the year. They are seven full games back of Everett for first place and six-and-a-half behind second-place Eugene after the Emeralds beat the AquaSox in Oregon Tuesday.
Luis Quinones gets the baseball on the mound for Vancouver Wednesday against Helcris Olivarez for Spokane. Game time is 7:05 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com.
C’s Alumni Report
The Buffalo Bisons were 3-2 winners in Rochester Tuesday.
- Richard Ureña (2014) – Scored run as pinch-runner
- Riley Adams (2017) – 1/4
- Cullen Large (2017) – 0/4, RF Assist
- Logan Warmoth (2017) – 1/3
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats fell 3-2 in Binghamton.
- Chavez Young (2017) – 2/4
- Otto Lopez (2018) – 1/4, HR (3)
- Vinny Capra (2018) – 1/4
- L.J. Talley (2021) – 1/4
- Kevin Vicuña (2017) – 0/3, HBP, SB (7)
- Tanner Kirwer (2018) – 1/4, HR (2)
- Chris Bec (2018) – 1/3, SB (6)
- Fitz Stadler (2018) – 2.0IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 4K
Tayler Saucedo (2015) gave up a hit and a walk but pitched two-thirds of a scoreless inning in Toronto’s <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://<!– wp:paragraph –> <p>Tayler Saucedo gave up a hit and a walk but pitched two-thirds of a scoreless inning in Toronto's 7-5 loss at Baltimore.</p> 7-5 loss at Baltimore.
Jon Berti (2011) had a pinch-hit single as Miami outlasted the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 in 10 innings.
Tim Locastro (2014) was 1-for-4 with two runs scored as the New York Yankees destroyed Seattle 12-1.
All the best to 2014 C’s designated hitter Rowdy Tellez as the Blue Jays traded him to Milwaukee Brewers for reliever Trevor Richards and minor league hurler Bowden Francis. Tellez was with Vancouver during the 2014 Northwest League playoffs.
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