The Vancouver Canadians were slaughtered in their series finale by the Eugene Emeralds 10-0 at P.K. Park Sunday afternoon.
It was scoreless until the bottom of the third when Ghordy Santos laid down a bunt down the third base line with one out in the third inning against C’s starter Trent Palmer. A balk was called after Palmer tried to pick off Santos. Palmer was one strike away from getting out of the inning. He got ahead of Casey Schmitt 0-2 before plunking him in the back. Santos stole third base but Palmer was again ahead 0-2 on Jairo Pomares who lifted a fly ball that clanked off the glove of Mack Mueller in right field, allowing Santos to score and Schmitt to get to third. Palmer then threw a wild pitch to the backstop and that brought Schmitt home to make it 2-0 Eugene. Patrick Bailey looped a ball over the head of P.K. Morris at first base to score Pomares before Bailey was cut down at second on a 9-6 play to end the inning.
Eugene added to their lead in the fourth. Carter Aldrete started things off with a leadoff ground rule double to left-center. One out later, Carter Williams hit a two-run home run to right to up the Emeralds lead to 5-0.
The Em’s struck again in the sixth against C’s reliever Alejandro Melean. A one-out walk by Luis Toribio was driven home by a Jimmy Glowenke two-run homer to left, one pitch after Melean pitched him high and tight.
Eugene staged their final rally in the eighth when a Bailey fly ball to right was misjudged by Mueller, resulting in a gift double against C’s reliever Jol Concepcion. Aldrete then walked before Toribio doubled down the left field corner to bring home Bailey. Williams then hit a grounder to second to score Aldrete. Toribio would score the Emeralds 10th run on a Santos infield single to second. Miguel Hiraldo made a sliding stop to his right but his throw wound up in the Eugene first base dugout, giving Santos an extra base.
C-Notes
The C’s were set down 1-2-3 in the first inning but got their leadoff man on in the next two innings. P.K. Morris singled to right off Ryan Murphy in the second but Murphy would strike out the side. Davis Schneider drew a walk in the third and got as far as second after Murphy knocked down a sharp grounder on the mound by Steward Berroa with two outs but Schneider was stranded after Leo Jiménez struck out.
Vancouver did not have another baserunner until there were two outs in the eighth when Schneider drew his second walk of the day. Jiménez got the final hit for Vancouver by lining a single to center with one out in the ninth.
No extra-base hits for Vancouver and only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position and only four men were left with two singles and two walks. All nine starters, save for Schneider, struck out at least once as the Emeralds hung 14 K’s on them.
Palmer struck out a pair of batters in the first inning to overcome a walk by Schmitt in the first and got around a Bailey base hit to start the second with two more punchouts. That was after a nice play by Morris at first to handle a chopper by Toribio and force Schmitt out at second on a 3-6 play.
The final pitching line for Palmer was 3-2/3 innings of five-run ball but only two of them were earned. He allowed six runs, including a home run, a walk and a hit by pitch but struck out six. Palmer was chased from the game after another Santos base hit. Alex Nolan came in and retired the only hitter he faced to strand Santos after he stole second.
Melean struck out two in a perfect fifth but had the grounds crew do some work on the mound before the sixth. He later issued a walk that led to a two-run homer in the sixth but put a perfect seventh, striking out five in his three innings of work.
Concepcion yielded the other three runs on three hits and a walk while striking out two in the eighth.
The Canadians continue to struggle on defence as their two errors Sunday gives them 36 over 29 games.
The 14-15 Canadians return home for a six-game series against the Tri-City Dust Devils. Sem Robberse is scheduled to throw the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. The game will be on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
2021 C’s outfielder Eric Rivera hit his first professional home run for the Winnipeg Goldeyes in their loss to Fargo-Moorhead Sunday. Rivera is off to a 5-for-11 start at the plate.
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