A second straight game with a 9-8 score did not turn out in the favour of the Vancouver Canadians as they fell to the Everett AquaSox at Everett Memorial Stadium Wednesday.
The Frogs jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings. Victor Labrada hit a two-out home run against Alejandro Melean in the first inning to make it 1-0 Everett. The second inning saw Cody Grosse deliver a two-out double to score a Tyler Keenan walk. Cade Marlowe‘s infield single to second and a throwing error by Rafael Lantigua resulted in an Andy Thomas single and Grosse crossing the plate.
Vancouver bashed their way back into the game with three home runs in the third. Rafael Lantigua led off with a home run off to left-center field. After Tanner Morris reached on a bloop single to left, Spencer Horwitz launched a two-run homer to right-center. That led to Everett pitching coach Sean McGrath paying a visit to the mound to talk to Then but whatever McGrath said did not work as Orelvis Martinez lined one over the fence to left field to tie the game at 4-4.
Everett went ahead again in the bottom of the third against Melean. Jose Caballero doubled with one out, stealing third base and continuing on his merry way home after a Philip Clarke throwing error from behind the plate.
The C’s would tie it again in the fourth when Zac Cook hit a one-out double to left and got to third when Lantigua snuck a ball past Then on the mound to get aboard. Morris’ sacrifice fly to left allowed Cook to tag up and score.
The AquaSox grabbed the lead again in the sixth when a one-out Cody Grosse walk and stolen base was driven in by a Marlowe two-run homer off Willy Gaston to make it 7-5 Everett.
The Canadians stormed back in the seventh against Peyton Alford. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Morris led off the inning with a single back to the mound and Horwitz followed with a walk. Morris would come home on a two-out double to center by Clarke. A passed ball by Thomas allowed Horwitz to score the tying run before a Sebastian Espino infield single to short brought in Clarke with the go-ahead run.
Everett would answer back again after the seventh inning stretch against Gabriel Ponce. Dariel Gomez got aboard with a one-out walk and moved up to second on a Keenan single. Gomez tried to score on a single to left by Justin Lavey but was thrown out at the plate by Cook to keep Vancouver ahead temporarily. The next batter was Thomas and he lined a double to right to score Keenan and Lavey with the tying and winning runs.
C-Notes
Vancouver had two runners on in scoring position with one away in the first inning after a Morris walk and a Horwitz double to center but Martinez struck out looking and Robertson grounded out to second. The C’s also wasted a Clarke leadoff double in the second when Espino lined out to center, Rivera grounded out to first and Cook struck out swinging to leave Clarke at third.
Lantigua stole his 22nd and 23rd bases of the season around Morris’ sacrifice fly in the fourth but Horwitz lined out to left to end the inning.
Vancouver got two runners on in the eight against Bryan Pall when Morris singled to right and Horwitz walked with one out. Pall struck out Martinez before Jarod Bayless whiffed Robertson for the third out.
Espino doubled off Bayless with one out in the ninth but was the final out of the game when he was thrown out trying to steal third.
The C’s went 1-2-3 in the fifth inning against Stephen Kolek and managed just one hit against him in the sixth on a two-out base hit to right by Cook.
Morris went 3-for-3 with a walk and a sacrifice fly, extending his hitting and on-base streaks to 20 and 29 games respectively. Horwitz had his ninth homer and 24th double of the season to also record a hit in 20 straight games and drew a pair of walks.
Lantigua had two hits, including his eighth homer of the year and Clarke had two doubles to give him 14 on the year. Espino and Cook both had a double and a single.
Seven Canadians batters had one hit and Rivera reached base with a hit by pitch but Vancouver was 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position, leaving nine men on.
Melean surrendered five runs (four earned) in four innings in his C’s debut. He gave up six hits, including a homer, walking three and striking out three. Gaston served up a two-run homer among three hits and two walks, striking out two in 1-2/3 innings.
Ponce stranded a runner for Gaston but took the loss when he duplicated Gaston’s line with just one fewer out recorded. Thomas Ruwe struck out two of the three men he faced in a shutout eighth.
Vancouver is now 48-56 on the year, 10-1/2 games back of Eugene for the second and final playoff spot in the High-A West. Everett is back in first place by half-a-game while Spokane remains one game out of first and a half-game behind Eugene for second.
A pair of Adams will start Thursday’s game at Everett Memorial with the Canadians going with Adam Kloffenstein against Adam Hill of the AquaSox in a 7:05 pm start on CanadiansBaseball.com.
C-Tweets
C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog 