Photo by Christopher Oertell (@cjimagesnw)
The Vancouver Canadians have lost another series after suffering their fourth straight loss to the Spokane Indians by a score of 4-0 at Avista Stadium Saturday.
Paxton Schultz put up four zeros to begin the game for the C’s but a leadoff walk to Niko Decolati in the fifth was tripled home by Aaron Schunk and that turned out to be all that Spokane would need. Schunk would score on a Javier Guevara sacrifice fly one out later to make it 2-0 for the home side.
Spokane added another run in the sixth off Schultz when Isaac Collins singled and made his way around the bases on three consecutive ground balls by Daniel Montano, Colton Welker and Michael Toglia. Welker reached base on a fielding error by Luis De Los Santos at second, allowing Toglia to get the RBI groundout.
The last run of the game came against Hagen Danner in the seventh inning. Hunter Stovall singled his away board to lead things off, stealing second before making it over to third on a wild pitch. Cristopher Navarro gave himself up with a sacrifice bunt one out later to score Stovall.
C-Notes
The Canadians were held to just four hits in this one. De Los Santos had the first hit with a two out single to center field in the first inning off Noah Davis—making his Rockies organizational debut after being acquired from the Cincinnati Reds in the Mychal Givens deal—but De Los Santos was thrown out trying to steal second by Guevara.
The third inning ended the same way when Rafael Lantigua had a base hit to left with two away but was also nailed trying to swipe second.
De Los Santos had a base knock to left to start the seventh off Fineas Del Bonta-Smith but would remain at first and Tanner Morris had an infield single to second to begin the ninth but was erased on an game-ending 6-4-3 double play ball from Spencer Horwitz.
Philip Clarke drew the first Canadians walk in the second with two outs but did not get any further. Morris heard ball four to begin the fourth but was forced out on a De Los Santos 6-4-3 double play.
Will Robertson took one for the team to open up the fifth but was erased on a 4-6 fielder’s choice by Clarke.
The C’s had two runners in the eighth but not at the same time. Davis Schneider picked up a leadoff walk against Jake Sommers but Eric Rivera hit into a 4-3 double play. Zac Cook then took one for the team but was stranded when Lantigua went down swinging.
Rivera was replaced by D.J. Neal in right field in the bottom of the eighth inning.
De Los Santos had the only two-hit game for Vancouver and Morris reached twice with a single and a walk but Vancouver never got a runner into scoring position. They did get at least one runner on every inning except in the sixth.
Schultz had two runners to deal with in the first inning but not at the same time. He picked off Collins at first after a first-pitch single and induced a 6-4-3 double play from Welker to take care of a Montano walk. At one point, Schultz sat down 10 of 11 hitters, yielding just a Stovall single to begin the third inning.
Schultz surrendered three runs (two earned) over six innings on five hits and two walks. He struck out four and got nine of his 11 outs in play on the ground.
Danner uncorked three wild pitches in the seventh, giving up a run on two hits and striking out one in the seventh.
Cobi Johnson needed just 10 pitches to pitch a shutout eighth.
Vancouver now finds itself nine games below .500 at 34-43 thanks to a horrible month of July in which they finished 8-19. They remain in fifth place, only three games ahead of Tri-City in the standings.
The Canadians hope Nick Fraze can help them salvage a win in the series finale. Mitch Kilkenny is set to throw the first pitch at 5:09 pm on CanadiansBaseball.com.
C’s Alumni Report
Buffalo lost 4-2 to the rehabbing Chris Sale and the Worcester Red Sox Saturday.
- Cullen Large – 1/4, 2B, R
- Nash Knight – 3/4, 2B, 3B, RBI, R
- Travis Bergen – 1.0IP 1H 0R/ER 0BB 2K
New Hampshire fell 6-4 to Portland in the first game of their doubleheader.
- Samad Taylor – 2/4, HR (13), 2RBI, 2R
- Chavez Young – 1/4, RBI
- Otto Lopez – 1/4
- L.J. Talley – 2/3
- Kevin Vicuña – 2/3
- Chris Bec – 1/3, 2B (2), R
The Fisher Cats were blanked 1-0 in Game 2.
- Talley – 1/3
- Ryan Gold – 0/2, BB
- Nick Podkul – 0/2, BB
- Reggie Pruitt – 1/3
- Luis Quinones – 5.0IP 2H 0R/ER 2BB HBP 7K
- Marcus Reyes – 1.0IP 0H 0R/ER 1BB 0K
Alek Manoah allowed just two hits and a walk, striking out four in seven shutout innings as Toronto blanked Kansas City 4-0. Ryan Borucki also added two-thirds of a scoreless frame.
Kevin Pillar scored the winning run as the New York Mets got by Cincinnati 4-3 in 10 innings.
Daniel Norris struck out one and pitched two-thirds of a perfect inning in Milwaukee’s 8-1 loss to Atlanta.
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