The Vancouver Canadians ended a two-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Tri-City Dust Devils at Nat Bailey Stadium Friday afternoon.
C’s starter Ricky Tiedemann retired the first five hitters he faced but plunked Mike Peabody on the back of his right leg before allowing a Straton Podaras single to left that was kicked around by Harry Ray, giving Peabody and Podaras an extra base. That miscue would prove costly when Francisco Del Valle blooped a single to center that just eluded the grasp of Addison Barger at short to score Peabody and Podaras.
The Canadians would rally in the fourth against Dust Devils starter Robinson Piña. Riley Tirotta snuck one by a diving Christian Sepulveda at third and took off for second when Edwin Yon juggled the ball in left, making it safely with a head-first dive. Tirotta made it to third on a passed ball by Podaras. Tirotta—a native of South Bend, Indiana—came home when the pride of Batesville, Indiana Zach Britton belted a two-run home run off the video board in center to knot the game up at 2-2.
The sixth inning saw the C’s start a two-out rally when Britton singled to right and Mack Muller drew a base on balls. Two wild pitches by Piña resulted in Britton sliding feet-first onto home plate o put the home side ahead 3-2.
Vancouver rallied again in the seventh when Sosa worked a leadoff walk against Dust Devils reliever Brandon Dufault. A wild pitch got Sosa over to second before Barger’s single up the guy scored Sosa to make it 4-2 C’s. Barger got to second after Peabody mishandled the ball but was stranded when P.K. Morris grounded out to second.
The Dust Devils would respond in the eighth by first chasing Abdiel Mendoza from the game after a leadoff base hit to center by Osmy Gregorio. Lefthander Jimmy Burnette was summoned from the pen by C’s skipper Brent Lavallee. The first out came when Guzman was called out for batter’s interference, obstructing Sosa from throwing the ball to second when Gregorio attempted a steal. Gregorio would eventually swipe second and got to third on a grounder to first by Adams. Burnette would walk Yon and graze the elbow of Gabe Matthews to load up the bases before Peabody was drilled in the back to bring home Gregorio. Burnette would leave the bags loaded when he struck out Christian Molfetta looking.
Burnette would enjoy a 1-2-3 ninth by punching out the first two men he faced before getting a groundout to third for the save, preserving the win for Mendoza.
C-Notes
Eden led off the bottom of the first with a base hit to center on a 3-2 pitch, one pitch after Gregorio nearly chased down a foul pop up down the right side from second base. Eden would steal second with one out and slid safely into third after tagging up on a Morris fly ball to left. Tirotta drove a ball deep to center that nearly got over the head of Peabody who broke in on the ball but was able to recover in time to end the inning.
Britton was robbed of extra bases to start the second inning. Yovann made a diving grab near the first base line and was able to flip the ball to Piña covering the first base bag just in time to get Britton. A one-out base hit to left by Mueller and a two-out plunk of Andrés Sosa were stranded when Ray struck out swinging three pitches later.
Eden drilled a double off the wall in center to begin the bottom of the third but he was caught stealing third as he slid into the tag of Sepulveda at third who did a nice job of staying with the low throw from Podaras.
Miguel Hiraldo had a frustrating afternoon. He slammed his bat in frustration after a swinging strikeout and then broke his bat over his knee in frustration in the fourth. He was replaced by Ray at second base and Davis Schneider filled in for Ray in left field.
Barger ripped a line drive into the right field corner with two outs in the fifth for extra bases but was thrown out at third on a 9-4-5 play to end the inning. Some of the Canadians took exception to Piña’s reaction backing up the play from the mound but Yon came in from left field to get between his pitcher to help keep the peace.
Podaras had to leave the game with two outs in the fourth from behind the plate when he was hit on the left elbow on a back swing from Sosa. Molfetta donned the tools of igorance for Tri-City the rest of the way after catching a swinging strike three from Sosa to end the fourth.
Steward Berroa took over for Schneider in left field after Schneider struck out to end the sixth. Schneider was at the plate for the two wild pitches that saw Britton score the go-ahead run.
Britton, Eden and Barger had two-hit afternoons with Britton getting his second home run of the year. Tirotta and Mueller had the other safeties with Tirotta, Eden and Barger getting a double. Eden had a stolen base but was also caught once. Mueller and Sosa had the lone ball fours..Vancouver was 2-for-9 with runners at second and/or third and stranded five.
Tiedemann handed out one-out walks to José Guzman and Jordyn Adams in the third and they would executive a double steal. Guzman took off for home when a throw by Sosa from behind the plate eluded Tiedemann on the mound but that came right after a foul ball by Yon so Guzman had to retreat to third. Tiedeman would strike out Yon looking and got Yovan on a check swing for strike three. It appeared Yovan had checked his swing and was upset that home plate umpire Hector Cuellar did not ask for an appeal from base umpire Zdenek Zidek. That led to Yovan being ejected from the game. Matthews replaced Yovan at first.
After getting the first two outs of the fourth that included a swinging strikeout of Gregorio to end his day, Tiedemann rung up nine batters on the day. The 19 year-old yielded just two runs, one earned, on two hits, two walks and a hit by pitch with 51 of his 76 pitches located in the strike zone
Mendoza took over on the hill and closed out the fifth with a ground ball out to first. He set down the side in order in the sixth, including a strikeout of Yon. Mendoza showed great composure by hiding his emotions when the previous pitch looked good enough to be called strike three. Yon was almost retired earlier in the at-bat when he lifted a foul ball down the right side but Ray dropped the ball from second base.
Mendoza was charged with a run on two hits with one strikeout over 2-1/3 innings to improve to 2-0 on the season. Burnette walked one and plunked two, allowing the Mendoza runner to score but he struck out three over two shutout innings for his second save.
Peabody singled off Mendoza to start the seventh before a sacrifice bunt by Molfetta moved Peabody to second. The bunted ball was backspinning on the first base side but Sosa pounced on the rawhide from behind the plate to throw out Molfetta. A grounder to second by Del Valle got Peabody over to third but Mendoza got out of the inning when Tirotta ranged to his left before spinning and firing a dart to retire Sepulveda.
Southpaw Naswell Paulino will be getting the start for Vancouver on Saturday. Adam Kloffenstein—the originally scheduled starter—has been promoted to Double-A New Hampshire. The 21 year-old from Magnolia, Texas had a 3.81 earned run average over six start, striking out 30 and walking 10 over 26 inning. Kloffenstein spent the 2019 and 2021 season with Vancouver. You can check out this chat with King Kloff from 2019.
Paulino will pitch against Dylan King in a 1:05 p.m. first pitch at The Nat. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV. Sunday’s starter for Vancouver has not been announced. It was listed as Trent Palmer‘s start earlier this week.
Vancouver is 16-17 at the quarter-pole of the 132-game season, trailing first place Spokane by two games.The C”s are a perfect 6-0 on Fridays this season.
Radar Gun Rundown
Tiedeman had strikeouts of 97, 84, 95, 97, 95, 95, 84, 95 and 78 miles per hour. He also touched 98 on the gun. Mendoza recorded a strikeout at 84 before checking in at 79 on the low end and 95 on the high end. Burnette’s K readings were at 80, 93 and 91. He also hit 100 on the gun and dropped in one at 77l.
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