The Vancouver Canadians were able to eke out a 4-3 victory over the Spokane Indians at Nat Bailey Stadium Saturday.
Spokane started the scoring in the third inning off Jimmy Robbins. A leadoff single to left by Bladimir Restituyo led to a stolen base and a wild pitch before Zac Veen‘s grounder to second scored Restituyo with the game’s first run.
The C’s stormed back in the bottom of the third against Joe Rock. Glenn Santiago slammed a triple off the wall to left-center to start the frame and he would score on an Anthony Morales sacrifice fly. Rock mishandled a tapper back to the mound from Steward Berroa to allow the speedy Dominican to reach base. He stole second and third base before coming home on a wild pitch to put Vancouver ahead. Tyler Keenan hit a double that just stayed fair over the third base bag into left field and he would score on a Leo Jiménez double to the wall in right-center.
P.K. Morris flared a single to left to move Jiménez to third before a Miguel Hiraldo 6-4 fielder’s choice scored Jiménez with the fourth Vancouver run.
The seventh inning saw Spokane cut into the C’s three-run advantage. Nic Kent doubled to left past a diving Harry Ray at third and Cris Navarro singled to right on a 0-2 pitch off Garrett Farmer to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Restituyo put one in play with a grounder to short to score Kent and move Navarro to second as Morris made a nice stretch to complete the putout at first. Farmer got Veen to strike out but Veen got aboard on a wild pitch and Navarro made it to third. Morales tried to throw out Veen but his throw was off the mark. Veen stole second base and a throwing error by Morales allowed Navarro to score.
C-Notes
Restituyo tried to bunt his away aboard on the game’s first pitch from Robbins but wound up hitting the ball twice so it was ruled a foul ball. The leadoff hitter for Spokane would reach base when Morris could not hang on to the ball at first base on a throw from Ray at third. Restituyo got to second on a ground ball by Veen and advanced to third on a Romo roller to short but a running catch by Berroa towards left-center off the bat of Lavigne ended the inning.
Carreras opened the second with a double that Berroa could not chase down in center towards the fence as the ball clanked off his glove. Robbins struck out Boone and Martin before Kent worked a two-out walk but Navarro hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
Berroa continued to get his exercise in during the third inning. He ran down a Romo fly ball on the warning track for the second out after Veen’s RBI groundout. A Lavigne single to center followed but Berroa made the catch on a Carreras liner for the third out.
Ray got Farmer his first out of the game in the fourth by making a catch next to the C’s third base dugout in foul territory off the bat of Boone. Mueller then made a sliding catch in right to take away a hit from Kent to end a three-up, three-down inning.
Restituyo reached base when his roller to third skipped off the glove of Ray for a one-out error. A stolen base by Restituyo with two outs was stranded when Farmer struck out Romo looking.
Lavigne also got on base in the sixth due to an error when Hiraldo mishandled a grounder at second. A wild pitch followed to put Lavigne into scoring position but Farmer retired the next three hitters in a row, including an inning-ending strikeout of Martin.
A wild-pitch/strikeout double play put an end to Spokane’s two-run rally in the seventh inning. Veen stole third and tried to come home on a Farmer wild pitch but it bounced in front of the plate where Morales was able to tag out Veen before throwing the ball to first to complete the strikeout of Romo.
Lavigne singled on the first pitch of the eight off Ryan Boyer before Morris made a catch just before it hit the netting in first base foul territory for the first out. Boyer struck out pinch-hitter Colin Simpson and got Martin to fly out to right.
Boyer struck out Kent swinging and got pinch-hitter Braiden Ward looking but Restituyo tripled to right. Veen then hit a grounder to first that Morris fielded. Though the throw was behind Boyer, the Pittsburgh-Bradford hurler managed to stretch to catch the ball and touch the bag for the game’s final out.
Jiménez had Vancouver’s first hit with two outs in the first inning. His at-bat was extended when Boone could not complete a running catch towards the right field wall in foul territory. That allowed Jiménez to sneak a ball past his diving shortstop counterpart Carreras for a base hit.
Hiraldo advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw by Rock and stole third base after his fielder’s choice RBI grounder but Mack Mueller struck out swinging to end the third.
Ray had a base hit that got by a diving Navarro at third to begin the seventh but he was picked off by Anderson Pilar. Morales was robbed of a hit as Carreras made a running catch with his back to the infield in shallow center to end the frame.
Jiménez had two of Vancouver’s six hits including an RBI double to right and he stole his fourth base of the year. Keenan had a double in his return from the injured list. Morris, Ray and Santiago all found the hit column with Santiago getting a triple for his first hit in a C’s uniform. Berroa had a walk and two stolen bases to give him 21 on the year. Hiraldo picked up his 17th swipe. The C’s had two hits in five tries with runners in scoring position and stranded three.
Robbins gave up a run on four hits and a walk over three innings and struck out two. Farmer got the win to improve to 3-0. He tossed four innings of two-run ball (one earned) on two hits and he struck out five. Boyer gave up two hits over two scoreless innings and struck out three for his second save.
The Canadians conclude this six-game set with Spokane at 1:05 p.m. Sunday. Nick Frasso will make his High-A debut for Vancouver against lefty Sam Weatherly. Tyler Zickel will call the action on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Robbins rung up batters at 93 and 77 miles per hour and touched 95. Farmer had punchouts at 76, 90, 83, 84 and ranged from 74 to 92. Boyer had strikeouts at 93, 94 and 80 and was at 77 on the low end.
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