The Vancouver Canadians enjoyed their first walk-off victory of the season as they defeated the Everett AquaSox 7-6 at Nat Bailey Stadium Friday afternoon.
Canadians starter Naswell Paulino retired the first five hitters he faced and was a strike away from retiring the side in order in the second but Justin Lavey lifted a ball over the head of first baseman P.K. Morris for a single to right field. Lavey would steal second base and come home on a Trent Tingelstad base hit to center. James Parker then singled on a 0-2 pitch and scored along with Tingelstand on a double to left by Colin Davis.
The AquaSox would get another run with two outs in the third off Paulino. Spencer Packard hit a leadoff double over the head of C’s left fielder Harry Ray before David Sheaffer got a two-out double. His blast off the center field wall got by a leaping Garrett Spain who wound up knocking a number off the manual scoreboard.
Everett added two more runs in the sixth when Tingelstad doubled to center with one out and scored on Parker’s home run to left off Mark Simon. The ball left the yard in such a hurry that the outfielders never moved.
The C’s finally solved AquaSox starter Jordan Jackson in the sixth. Leo Jiménez hit a double that short-hopped the fence in left field with one out before Addison Barger drew.a walk. Morris would then pull one over the right field fence for a three-run shot to chop the Everett lead in half at 6-3.
Vancouver would come all the way back in the eighth against AquaSox reliever Mike Mokma. Riley Tirotta lined a single to left with one out before Zach Britton got hit in the right hand. Ray forced out Britton on a 6-4 fielder’s choice to put runners at the corners. Davis Schneider kept the rally going with a base hit to left field to score Tirotta and get Ray over to third. Mack Mueller then hit a double to the gap in right-center field to plate Ray and Schneider to tie the game at 6-6.
The Canadians went back to work against Mokma in the ninth as Jiménez led off with a single to left but he was forced out on the front end of a 3-6-3 double play ball by Addison Barger. Just when it looked like the game was heading into extra innings, Morris rocked Mokma with his second home run of the game over the right-center field wall to give the Canadians the victory.
C-Notes
The Canadians managed to get at least one man on base for all nine innings. Jiménez had the game’s first hit with a one-out infield single to short that Noelvi Marte could only knock down. However, Jiménez was forced out on a 4-6 fielder’s choice by Barger. Though Barger stole second, Morris would ground out to first to end the inning.
Britton singled to center with one out in the second but he was cut down on a 6-4 fielder’s choice by Ray. Despite a stolen base by Ray, Schneider struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch.
Mueller began the third with a base rap up the middle but Spain hit into a 4-6-3 double play to spoil that uprising.
The C’s would get two baserunners on in the fourth but not at the same time. Barger ripped a single to right and tried to steal second but he overslid the bag and was tagged out by Marte. A walk by Morris was then wiped out by a Riley Tirotta 6-4-3 double play.
Ray reached base on an error by Lavey at second with one out in the second when Lavey dropped the ball after fielding it but nothing developed out of that.
Mueller started the seventh with an infield single that deflected off the hand of AquaSox reliever Luis Curvelo (great name for a pitcher!) and went to Marte at short. Curvelo reached across his body to try to field the ball but hurt his hand instead. Curvelo remained in the game and retired the side in order.
Jiménez and Mueller supplied 50 percent of the C’s 12 hits with three apiece. Morris drew a walk to go with his second and third homers of the season. Barger and Tirotta singled and walked while Britton singled and took one for the team. Schneider also had a base rap as eight Canadians reached base at least once. Barger stole his fifth base of the year and Ray swiped his first. Vancouver was 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven.
Tirotta helped Paulino get out of the inning by ranging into foul territory on the third base side to field a sharply hit ball and firing a laser beam to first to get AquaSox catcher Charlie Welch.
Morris contributed with the glove in this one as well by tracking down a ball from first base into foul territory by reaching over the tarp to retire Shaeffer in the second.
Paulino gave up a one-out double to Parker in the fourth but was able to strand him.
Simon overcame a leadoff walk to Packard in the fifth and retired the first four men he faced before giving up three consecutive hits. Lefthander Jimmy Burnette stranded a Davis single in the sixth by striking out Packard on a 3-2 pitch even though he hit Packard. However, Packard offered at the ball and was called out. Burnette ran into trouble in the seventh by walking pinch-hitter Dariel Gomez and Shaeffer. A passed ball by Britton moved them up 90 feet one out later but Burnette got Lavey to foul out to Morris at first after chasing the ball down before retiring Tingelstad on a fly ball to center.
Garrett Farmer gave up a leadoff single to Parker in the eighth. He tried to steal second with one out but was sent back to first when Marte was called out for batter interference. Farmer then got a piece of a ground ball that deflected to Jiménez who threw out Packard at first for an inning-ending 1-6-3 putout. A leadoff walk to Welch in the ninth by Farmer led to a change on the mound. Ryan Boyer sat down all three men he faced—stranding Welch at second after he tagged up on an one-out flyout by Sheaffer—to send the game to the bottom of the ninth.
Paulino gave up a run an inning over four frames on seven hits but did not walk anyone and struck out four. Simon lasted 1-1/3 innings, surrendering a two-run home run among three hits and a walk and striking one out. Burnette stranded a runner for Simon with 1-2/3 scoreless innings in which he walked two and struck one. Farmer gave up a hit and a walk in one-plus innings of work with one punchout. Two flyouts and a groundout by Boyer allowed him to get the win.
Radar Gun Rundown
Paulino touched 93 but was mostly at 88-89 on the high end and 77 on the low end. His strikeouts were clocked at 80, 82, 89 and 84. Simon checked in at 92 and 93 and had a strikeout at 79. Burnett was in the 92-95 range and threw one at 76 with a strikeout at 92. Farmer was as low as 74 and 79 and reached 90 and 92. Boyer was at 92.
Congratulations to 2015 Vancouver Canadians lefty Danny Young who was called up to the Seattle Mariners from Triple-A Tacoma. Young began his pro career with the C’s after being selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighth round of the 2015 MLB draft out of Florida. Young made 15 appearances on the mound for the C’s and earned his first professional win against Eugene July 22.
2017 C’s lefty Zach Logue made his first major league start for the Oakland Athletics Friday night. Despite allowing just two runs over five innings and striking out five, the former Kentucky Wildcat took the loss as Minnesota edged Oakland at Target Field 2-1.
The Canadians and Frogs will play two Saturday at Nat Bailey Stadium beginning at 1:05 p.m. Chad Dallas and Adam Kloffenstein are listed as the probable starters. MiLB.TV and CanadiansBaseball.com will carry both games.
Vancouver finds itself at .500 with 11 wins and 11 losses, 1-1/2 games back of Eugene and Spokane in the Northwest League standings.
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