The Vancouver Canadians kicked and threw the ball all over the field as they were pounded 10-2 by the Spokane Indians at Avista Stadium Saturday.
Spokane would jump on Trent Palmer for four runs in the second inning. With Robby Martin Jr. on first base with one out, Palmer’s pick off attempt got away from P.K. Morris at first and Martin wound up going to third. Julio Carreras drew a walk on a full count to put runners on the corners. Palmer got a ground ball to second base from Benjamin Sems but C’s second baseman Miguel Hiraldo made an off-balance throw after stepping on the bag to force Carreras that Morris could not reach at first, allowing Martin to score and Sems to reach second. Hiraldo committed another error when he booted a grounder from Bladimir Restituyo, resulting in Sems crossing the plate. With Restituyo on second on the error, Eddy Diaz knocked him home with a base hit up the middle. Diaz would steal second and third base and wound up scoring on an error by Canadians catcher Andrés Sosa.
Vancouver got its first run in the third off Spokane starter Joe Rock. A leadoff walk to Hugo Cardona was followed by a wild pitch. Cardona swiped third and he was able to scamper home on a throwing error by Spokane catcher Drew Romo.
Spokane would bust the game open in the sixth. Restituyo doubled and stole third but was thrown out at home by Vancouver reliever Will McAffer after he fielded a comebacker to the mound from Diaz. A stolen base and a throwing error by Sosa put Diaz at third and he would come home on a wild pitch to make it a 5-1 game. Spokane would load the bases and another McAffer wild pitch allowed a Zac Veen walk to score. After Spokane reloaded the bases, Jol Concepion replaced McAffer on the mound. Concepion threw one to the backstop that brought a Romo single to count. Another wild pitch on ball four to Martin and a throwing error by Sosa allowed walks by Daniel Montano and Grant Lavigne to score, upping the Spokane lead to 9-1.
The Canadians got their final run in the seventh. Hiraldo drew a leadoff walk against Spokane reliever Jared Biddy and stole second. He would round third and head for home after a single to right by Addison Barger.
Spokane added its 10th run against C’s reliever Mark Simon when Martin drove in a Drew Romo base hit with a single.
C-Notes
On Saturday, P.K. Morris had Vancouver’s first hit of the night when he banged a double off the left field with two out in the first but he was left stranded. Hiraldo was also stranded in scoring position in the second after a single and a stolen base to start the inning.
Sosa’s leadoff walk in the fifth inning and a Leo Jiménez leadoff single in the sixth were stranded. Riley Tirotta and Barger both had singles off Anderson Bido in the ninth but Tirotta was forced out on the front end of a Hiraldo double play.
Palmer gave up four runs, all unearned, on four hits and three walks. He got into a bases loaded situation when Romo doubled and Grant Lavigne and Julio Carreras walked but Palmer struck out the side by getting Montano and Martin swinging and Sems looking. That gave Palmer five strikeouts on the night to go along with five outs on the ground.
Abdiel Mendoza turned in Vancouver’s best pitching line with two shutout innings on one hit and one walk while whiffing two. McAffer was charged with four earned runs out five over two-thirds of an inning, yielding two hits and three walks. Concepion permitted all three of McAffer’s runners to score while scattering a hit and a walk. He collected a strikeout and committed a balk over 1-1/3 scoreless innings. Simon surrendered a run on three hits and struck out a batter in the eighth.
Spokane managed to put up 10 runs despite going 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position but seven Vancouver errors greatly helped the cause. The only miscue not to figure in the scoring was a Tirotta fielding error in the seventh off the bat of Sems but Sosa retrieved the ball backing up first and threw the ball to Barger at short to get Sems at second.
Barger had the lone two-hit night and Hiraldo had a hit and a walk. Jiménez was 1-for-4 out of the DH spot. Tirotta had the other base hit. Sosa and Cardona both heard ball four once.
Sem Robberse gets the start for Vancouver in the series finale Sunday against Andrew Quezada. Game time on CanadiansBaseball.com is at 1:05 pm.
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