The Vancouver Canadians had another fabulous Friday as they defeated the Tri-City Dust Devils 4-1 in Game 1 of their doubleheader at Gesa Stadium.
The C’s got to Tri-City starter José Salvador five pitches into the game as Davis Schneider hit a one-out home run over the wall in left-center field for an early 1-0 lead.
Schneider started another rally in the third with a leadoff walk and got to second on a Leo Jiménez fly ball to left. Trevor Schwecke reached on an infield single to third and a throwing error by José Guzman allowed Schneider to step on home plate for the second time. Miguel Hiraldo jumped on the next pitch from Salvador as he put one over the wall in left for a two-run shot to up the Vancouver lead to four.
Canadians starter Ricky Tiedemann tossed five shutout innings and Jol Concepcion worked a scoreless sixth before the Dust Devils started a one-out rally against Concepcion in the seventh. D’Shawn Knowles drew a walk, went to second on a single to center by Kenyon Yovan and scored on a base hit up the middle by Christian Molfetta.
Game 2 was scoreless until the bottom of the third as the Dust Devils got a leadoff single to center from Mike Peabody against C’s starter Naswell Paulino. A base hit to right by Yovan on a 0-2 pitch and a walk to Adams on a full-count pitch loaded the bases. Kyle Kasser then singled to left to score Peabody with the game’s first run. Rain forced the game to be suspended at that point.
C-Notes
Addison Barger followed Schneider’s first inning home run with a single to left but did not go any further.
The second inning saw Miguel Hiraldo single to left and Tyler Keenan get a base hit to right with nobody out. A Mack Mueller tapper to the mound advanced the two runners 90 feet but Anthony Morales popped up to first and Steward Berroa grounded out to first.
Mueller had a leadoff walk in the fourth and Jiménez walked with one out in the fifth but nothing came out of that. Keenan started the sixth with a double and was left 180 feet away from scoring. Barger had a one-out base on balls to give Vancouver at least one baserunner in all seven innings.
Hiraldo and Keenan had two hits apiece and Schneider drew a walk to get aboard twice. Hiraldo is up to four homers on the year and Schneider has six. Barger had a base hit and a base on balls. Jiménez and Mueller heard ball four once.
Tri-City had just three hits against Tiedemann and they all came with one out in the second inning as Osmy Gregorio singled on a 0-1 pitch, Knowles singled on a 1-2 pitch to right and Kenyon Yovan had a strike against him before his base hit. Tiedemann left the bases loaded by striking out Molfetta and Kyle Lovelace swinging.
Gregorio drew a walk against Tiedemann with one out in the fourth but the Californian lefthander retired 11 of the last 12 hitters he faced, the last four by strikeout to complete five shutout frames. Tiedemann’s earned run average is down to 0.46 as he improves to 2-0.
Concepcion was perfect in the sixth but allowing a run in the seventh on two hits and a walk to go along with two strikeouts.
Vancouver ran their record on Fridays to a perfect 9-0 but that mark is in jeopardy given the beginning of game two.
The Canadians dodged an early bullet when Kasser singled to left off Paulino in the first with one out and moved into scoring position when Morales tried to pick off Kasser at first base from behind the plate but the throw got away from Sosa. Paulino struck out Gabe Matthews for out number three and retired the side in order in the second but left the bases loaded with nobody out when the game was suspended due to rain. Gregorio will come up to bat with the bases loaded and nobody out in the third.
The Vancouver offence were retired by Zak Kristofak in order as the Dust Devils starter struck out five of the nine men he faced.
To make matters worse, the C’s lost the services of Jiménez due to an injured hand just before the game was stopped. Hugo Cardona took over at short for Jiménez and Berroa came into the game to fill right field for Cardona.
Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader will resume at 5:35 p.m. Saturday and will be followed by another seven-inning game. Hunter Gregory is listed as the probable starter for Vancouver for the nightcap. The games will be on CanadiansBaseball.com.
The transactions page on CanadiansBaseball.com says the C’s will have pitcher Braden Scott join the ball club. The 24 year-old from Bloomington, Indiana signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as a free agent February 2. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound left spent the majority of April at Double-A New Hampshire where he posted a record of 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA over six appearances. He began the year with Dunedin and put up a a 2-0 record with a 0.68 ERA with a 25-4 strikeout/walk total over 13-1/3 innings at the time of his call-up. He will wear number 36 for Monty’s Mounties.
Scott spent two years at Olney College before joining the Indiana Hoosiers. He pitched for the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League in 2021 where he won eight of 12 decisions with a 2.74 ERA and a K/BB mark of 104-24 in 89-1/3 innings.
Leaving Vancouver for Double-A New Hampshire is righthander Thomas Ruwe. The 6-foot-9 righthander put up a 2.11 ERA and struck out 31 batters in 21-1/3 innings with the C’s. He spent part of last year with the C’s where he had a 2.53 ERA and 17 K’s over 10-2/3 innings. You can check out my C’s Chat with Ruwe right here.
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