The Vancouver Canadians lost to the Everett AquaSox for the third time in a row with an 8-2 defeat at Ron Tonkin Field Thursday.
C’s starter C.J. Van Eyk got away with a leadoff walk to Victor Labrada by striking out two in the first but he did not get away with a free pass to Jake Anchia to start the second. A one-out wild pitch and a David Sheaffer double brought in Anchia to put the Frogs on the board. Cody Grosse then singled home Sheaffer with a two-out base hit.
Everett made it 3-0 when Dariel Gomez went deep for a solo home run with two outs in the third.
The Canadians responded with a run of their own in the third against Everett starter Levi Stoudt. A one-out single to center field by Ronny Brito was moved up 90 feet on a two-out walk by Rafael Lantigua. Brito would score on a Tanner Morris grounder up the middle.
The AquaSox would begin to pull away in the later stages. Anchia doubled off Adrian Hernandez to begin the sixth and made it to third on a Sheaffer groundout. Hernandez then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Anchia to cross the plate with Everett’s fourth run.
The seventh inning saw Jack Larsen lift one over the fence in right-center field with two away to make it a 5-1 ballgame for the visiting side.
Vancouver would get their first two men on to start the bottom of the seventh against Frogs reliever Evan Johnson when Spencer Horwitz singled to right and Sebastian Espino drew a walk. Ryan Gold would rap into a 4-6-3 double play but Will Robertson made sure the C’s did not come away empty-handed when he lined a single to left to bring in Horwitz from third.
Everett tripled their three-run lead in the ninth off Roither Hernandez. A Joseph Rosa double was driven in by a Labrada base hit before Larsen homered again for a two-run shot to right-center.
C-Notes
The Canadians went down in order in five of the first six innings and seven of nine overall. They got a run in the third but had a chance for more after Morris’ RBI put runners at second and third after both runners moved up a base on the throw from center but Luis De Los Santos grounded out to third to end the inning.
Vancouver tried to mount a two-out rally again in the eighth against Johnson with base hits by Morris and De Los Santos but Horwitz popped up to third in four territory.
The C’s had six hits in this one instead of the five they racked up in the previous two games of this series. Morris had two of them and was the only Canadian to reach twice safely. Lantigua drew the only walk.
Robertson made his return to the Vancouver lineup for the first time since May 11, picking up an RBI single in his four at-bats.
Also joining Robertson back from the injury list was pitcher Hagen Danner. He returned to the mound for the first time since June 3 and pitched a shutout inning with just a walk on his pitching line.
Going on the injured list is infielder John Aiello. He’s been out of action since July 11. Aiello batted .226/.294/.452 in nine games with a home run, four doubles, five runs batted in and a stolen base.
2018-2019 Seattle Mariners pitcher Matthew Festa worked the sixth inning for the AquaSox as part of his rehab assignment. He needed 15 pitches to get out of the inning—exactly five per batter—striking out Lantigua in his perfect inning.
Van Eyk struck out nine over five innings in which he allowed three runs on four hits and three walks. Three of his five outs in play were on the fake grass as he threw 84 pitches, 55 for strikes.
Adrian Hernandez allowed two runs on two hits and struck out two over two innings while Roither Hernandez was roughed up for three runs on three hits, striking out one in his lone inning.
Vancouver’s slim playoff hopes continue to get slimmer as their record is now 32-37, trailing second-place Eugene by 8-1/2 games. They remain a game up on Spokane and two ahead of Hillsboro. The AquaSox are 45-22 on the season.
The pitching matchup Friday sees Adam Kloffenstein square off against Tim Elliott. CanadiansBaseball.com will carry the game which begins at 7:05 p.m.
C’s Alumni Report
Buffalo slapped down Syracuse 10-4 Thursday.
- Logan Warmoth – 1/4, BB, SB (13), 2R
- Cullen Large – 3/5, R
- Riley Adams – 4/5, HR, 2B, 3RBI, 2R
- Richard Ureña – 2/5, 2B, R
- Nash Knight – 0/3, BB
- Zach Logue – 5.0IP 4H 4R/ER 2BB 8K
- Dany Jiménez – 1.0IP 0H 0R/ER 1BB 2K (W, 1-3)
New Hampshire rallied to walk off Reading 7-6.
- Chavez Young – 1/4, HR, BB, 2R
- Otto Lopez – 2/3, 2B, 2BB, RBI, 2R
- Jon Talley – 1/3, RBI
- Vinny Capra – 1/1, 2RBI
- Samad Taylor – 2/4, IBB, 2RBI, R
- Kevin Vicuña – 1/5, GWRBI
- Chris Bec – 0/3, BB, R
- Marcus Reyes – 2.1IP 0H 0R/ER 2BB 2K 0-3 IR/S
Dunedin knocked off Lakeland 5-3.
- Gabriel Ponce – 1.0IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 1K (SV, 7)
Jon Berti was 0-for-1 with a walk in Miami’s 3-2 loss to San Diego.
Congratulations to 2018 Canadians shortstop Vinny Capra on his promotion from Double-A New Hampshire to Triple-A Buffalo. He hit .370 in 138 at-bats with 11 doubles, 4 triples, six home runs and 34 runs batted in with the Fisher Cats.
C-Tweets
C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog 