The Vancouver Canadians saw their nine-game winning streak end after an 11-2 loss to the Spokane Indians at Avista Stadium Saturday.
Spokane wasted no time getting to Jimmy Robbins in the first inning. Eddy Diaz singled to center on the first pitch of the game but had to leave the game after landing on first base awkwardly and was replaced by Nic Kent. A full-count walk by Zac Veen and a single to left by Julio Carreras loaded the bases. Drew Romo walked to score Kent for the first run and a 4-6 fielder’s choice by Warming Bernabel plated Veen for the second run. Rollins did throw out Carreras at the plate after Hunter Goodman hit a comebacker to the mound.
The second inning saw Bladimir Restituyo bunt his way aboard on Robbins’ first pitch before scoring on a two-out double to center by Carreras.
In the third inning, Spokane piled on when Goodman singled to right before scoring on a two-run home run to right-center field by Colin Simpson. Two pitches later, Ronaiker Palmer also went deep off Robbins to left-center to make it 6-0 Spokane.
Spokane would score again in the fourth against Naswell Paulino. A one-out walk to Romo and a single to left by Bernabel put two runners on. The C’s tried to turn an inning-ending double play but a dropped ball by Damiano Palmegiani at first resulted in Romo scoring the seventh Spokane run.
The C’s would get their first run courtesy of the long ball as P.K. Morris belted a home run to right field off Mike Ruff with one out in the sixth.
The home side did not take kindly to their shutout bid being broken as they erupted with their biggest inning in the bottom of the sixth. Veen worked a leadoff walk, got to second on Romo fly out to center and scored on a Bernabel two-out base knock to left. Goodman and Simpson followed with back-to-back run-scoring doubles to make it a 10-1 game to chase Paulino from the game. Will McAffer saw Palma reached base on a throwing error by Leo Jiménez at short before surrendering a Restituyo run-scoring single to center to bring Simpson home.
Andrés Sosa would shave down Spokane’s double-digit lead with a home run to right field on a 3-2 pitch from Austin Kitchen to begin the ninth.
C-Notes
Vancouver’s first baserunner was Palmegiani when he reached on a fielding error by Bernabel at third with two out in the first inning. Morris followed with a walk but Miguel Hiraldo struck out swinging.
The Canadians next baserunner came with two outs in the third when Jiménez was hit by a pitch from Ruff before Palmegiani grounded out to short.
Vancouver got their first hit of the game when Sosa hit a ground-rule double to right with one out in the fifth inning. Dasan Brown was plunked with two outs but Jiménez was caught looking at strike three.
Riley Tirotta had a two-out single up the middle in the sixth but Garrett Spain went down swinging against Ruff. Sosa led off with a single to begin the seventh against Kitchen but Mack Mueller and Brown struck out looking and swinging respectively before Jiménez hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
Two-out infield singles to third and short by Hiraldo and Tirotta respectively were stranded when Spain grounded out to first to end the eighth.
Vancouver had one last gasp in the ninth by loading the bases with one out when Brown singled to right and Jiménez and Palmegiani both heard ball four. Robinson Hernandez replaced Kitchen and struck out Morris before getting Hiraldo to fly out to right to end the game.
Sosa was a triple shy of the cycle as he picked up his third home run of the year and his eighth double. Tirotta had the other multi-hit game with two singles in four trips to the plate. Morris went deep for home run number six and drew a walk. Brown singled and took one for the team while Jiménez walked and was hit by a wayward baseball. Hiraldo had a base hit and Palmegiani had a base on balls. Vancouver was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on.
Robbins was roughed up for six runs on eight hits and three walks in three innings and struck out only one to take the loss. Paulino allowed five runs (three earned) on four hits and two walks in 2-2/3 innings and also just struck out one. McAffer allowed a Paulino runner to score but pitched 2-1/3 shutout innings of two-hit ball and struck out two.
Vancouver’s lead atop the Northwest League standings in the second half was chopped to 2-1/2 games as second-place Eugene knocked off Everett for the second straight night. The 15-7 C’s are up 3-1/2 games on third-place Everett.
Abdiel Mendoza starts the series finale Sunday against lefty Mason Green in a 1:05 p.m. start on CanadiansBaseball.com
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