The Vancouver Canadians reached double-digits in the run column for a second straight night as they demolished the Spokane Indians 14-5 at Ron Tonkin Field Friday.
The Canadians went to work early against Spokane starter Chris McMahon by loading the bases four batters in. Zac Cook led off with a walk, Spencer Horwitz was hit by a pitch with one out and Rafael Lantigua heard ball four. Philip Clarke then cleared the bags with a three-run double to center field.
Vancouver scored again in the second when Justin Ammons worked a one-out walk, stole second and came home on a ground-rule double to left-center by Cook to make it 4-0 Vancouver.
Spokane responded with a run in the top of the third against C’s starter Andrew Bash. The righthander loaded the bases with nobody out by walking Kyle Datres and Daniel Cope and hitting Isaac Collins with a pitch. Ezequiel Tovar singled home Datres and Cope to cut the Vancouver lead in half at 4-2. Though Bash started a 1-6-3 double play after a comebacker to the mound from Aaron Schunk, a two-out base hit from Grant Lavigne brought in the leftover runner Collins at third to make it a one-run game.
The visitors would tie the game in the fifth when a throwing error at short by Lantigua allowed Tovar to reach base. An errant pickoff throw by Bash and one-out sacrifice fly by Lavigna plate Tovar with the tying run.
Vancouver would take control of the game in the fifth against reliever Moises Ceja. A hit by pitch to Cook and a one-out single to center by Tanner Morris put two runners on with nobody out. Then history was made when Horwitz ripped a single to right to load the bases and break the Northwest League/High-A West record held by Tri-City’s Gary Johnson in 1962 for most consecutive games with a hit at 27.
Lantigua then lined one up the gut to score Cook and Morris to give Vancouver the lead again and Clarke added on with a three-run home run to right to bring in Horwitz and Lantigua to give Vancouver a 9-4 advantage
The Canadians would reach double digits in the sixth. Cook doubled to right off Ceja with one out and was driven in on a two-out single to right by Horwitz. The inning was extended by a Lantigua walk and he and Horwitz came home on a Clarke double to left to make it 12-4 for Monty’s Mounties.
The Salish squad would get one run back against Justin Maese in the seventh. Collins doubled and got to third on a one-out ground ball by Schunk before scoring on a Lavigne sac fly.
The C”s matched that run with a two-out rally in the seventh off Ceja. Ammons hit a ground-rule double to left-center and score on a Cook double that remained in play to left.
Vancouver completed the shellacking against Shelby Lackey in the eighth. Lantigua reached base on an infield single to second with one out, went to second on Clarke hit by a pitch and scored on a two-out knock to center by Davis Schneider.
C-Notes
The C’s had a chance to pile on even more in the eighth inning when Guerra walked with the bases loaded but Ammons struck out looking against Stephen Jones to end the rally. Vancouver batters were retired in order in the third and fourth innings but went 9-for-18 with runners in scoring position with seven left on.
Seven different Canadians had at least one hit and eight reached base safely. Clarke crushed his sixth homer of the year, doubled twice, was hit by a pitch and drove in eight runs. Cook had three hits—including a pair doubles—one walk and one plunk. Horwitz took one for the team and added two hits. Lantigua singled twice, walked twice, drove in two runs and scored four. Ammons collected his first double with the C’s and also earned a free pass. Morris kept his on-base streak going with a 1-for-5 effort to extend his string to 34 games.
Bash was the winning pitcher by making it through five innings. He allowed four hits, four walks and hit a batter, resulting in three earned runs out of four. He struck out two and got six outs on the carpet to earn his third win of the year.
Bash had a 1-2-3 first inning and stranded a leadoff double in the second by Lavigne. He also kept a Decolati leadoff single and a one-out Datres walk in the fourth from scoring.
Maese gave up a run on a hit and a walk and struck out two over two innings.
Roither Hernandez allowed two leadoff singles from Decolati and Daniel Montano but struck out Datres before induced an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play ball from Daniel Cope to complete a scoreless eighth.
Hagen Danner pitched a one-hit ninth and punched out a pair of batters.
The Canadians improved their record to 53 wins and 58 losses on the season. They are nine games back of Spokane for the final playoff spot in the High-A West with nine games left to go. Spokane is trying to hold off Everett for second place and have a two-game lead on the AquaSox. Eugene is now 1-1/2 games ahead of Spokane for first place after the Emeralds beat Everett again Thursday.
Sem Robberse gets his turn in the Vancouver rotation while Mitch Kilkenny gets the call for Spokane. First pitch is at 7:05 pm on CanadiansBaseball.com.
The Tri-City Dust Devils have opted to cancel the remainder of this week’s series against the Hillsboro Hops due to COVID complications.
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