The Vancouver Canadians were edged 2-1 by the Everett AquaSox at Nat Bailey Stadium Tuesday.
The C’s were first on the scoreboard when Damiano Palmegiani homered off Prelander Berroa by lining one over the short fence in left field into his team’s bullpen to start the second inning.
Everett tied the game in the fifth when Mike Salvatore took Naswell Paulino deep to left-center field by depositing the ball into the C’s left field bullpen seating area.
The AquaSox would score the winning run in the sixth. A leadoff walk and stolen base by Noelvi Marte came in to score on a two-out single by Dariel Gomez who had two strikes against him before lining a 1-2 offering up the middle.
C-Notes
Nick Frasso needed 26 pitches to get out of the first inning in which he allowed a pair of one-out singles to James Parker and Alberto Rodriguez. Frasso would strand the runners by striking out Gomez and David Sheaffer.
Hugo Cardona made a nice play at second to shovel a grounder off the bat of Trent Tingelstad for the first out of the second inning. Frasso then helped himself by fielding a sharp comebacker off the bat of Salvatore on the way to a three-up, three-down inning.
In the third inning, Frasso got Cole Barr to pop up to Anthony Morales behind home plate before striking out Marte and Parker swinging. Palmegiani was a triple shy of the cycle and stole his second base of the year. Morales had the only other hit and he also drew a walk. Brown, Jiménez and Tirotta also drew ball fours with Tirotta swiping his eight base of the season.
The Blue Jays fourth round pick in 2020 speared a comebacker to the mound to retire Rodriguez in the fourth before getting Gomez to line out to the left field warning track and David Sheaffer to line out to third to end his outing.
The AquaSox had a leadoff single from Tingelstad in the fifth inning off Paulino that went off the right field wall but Garrett Spain threw out Tingelstad trying to get to second for a 9-6 putout.
Steward Berroa helped out Paulino by making a leaping grab in front of the short left field fence to rob Parker to start the sixth.
Juan Nuñez worked around a leadoff walk to Salvatore in the seventh by getting a pair of strikeouts from Marte and Windsor, Ontario native Myles Miller.
Nuñez struck out Parker but walked Rodriguez and Gomez before turning the ball over to Jol Concepcion who struck out Sheaffer before getting Tingelstad to fly out to left.
Concepion walked Miller with one out in the ninth and committed a balk with two outs but got Marte to fly out to center for the final out.
Frasso struck out four and walked nobody over four shutout innings, retiring the last 11 men he faced. Paulino took the loss as he coughed up two runs on four hits and a walk over two innings. Nuñez offset three walks with three strikeouts over 1-1/3 shutout frames. Concepcion stranded two runners and struck out two against one walk over 1-2/3 scoreless innings.
Dasan Brown was robbed of a home run in his first at-bat at Nat Bailey Stadium. He drove a Berroa pitch deep to left but Tingelstad made a grab at the short fence to spoil what would have been a magical moment for the Oakville, Ontario native.
Riley Tirotta walked with one out after Palmegiani’s home run in the second inning. The fomer Dayton Flyer stole second base and got to third on a Spain groundout but Cardona struck out to end the frame.
Morales opened the third with a single to right. Despite a couple of wild pitches and a pair of one-out walks to Brown and Leo Jiménez to load the bases, Palmegiani struck out swinging and P.K. Morris’ sharp grounder was snapped up by Prelander Berroa on the mound and he completed the play to first to get out of the jam.
The fifth inning began with a leadoff walk to Morales from AquaSox reliever Evan Johnson but he only got as far as second on a Brown groundout to third as Steward Berroa and Jiménez went down swinging for outs one and three.
Palmegiani singled up the middle to open the sixth inning but Morris and Tirotta struck out swinging. Though Palmegiani made a nice headfirst slide to steal second in which he moved his right hand around the attempted tag, Spain grounded out to third for the third out.
Steward Berroa wore the golden sombrero with four strikeouts. He worked the count to 3-1 against Luis Curvelo with two outs in the eighth but swung at ball four before swinging and missing for strike three. Berroa also took issue with a called strike three by home plate umpire Matt Blackboro in the third inning.
Palmegiani got a gift double when a ball dropped in just fair down the left field line in the eighth. It looked like Marte had it in his sights as he ran over from short but the ball fell between Marte and Tingelstad instead. That two-out gift was wasted when Luis Curvelo got Morris to ground out to first.
Matthew Willrodt struck out the side in order in the ninth as he sat down Tirotta, Spain and pinch-hitter Andrés Sosa in place of Cardona.
Palmegiani had three-fourths of the cycle, needing only a triple, as he belted his sixth homer of the year and added his second stolen base. Morales had a single and a walk. Brown, Jiménez and Tirotta had the other free passes with Tirotta taking his eighth bag of 2022. Vancouver was 0-for-8 in the RISP department, left seven runners on and struck out 17 times.
The Canadians have another new pitcher in the fold. Righthander Matt Svanson was promoted from Dunedin after going 5-5 with a 4.37 earned run average. In nine starts and six relief appearances, he struck out 60 batters and walked 20 over 59-2/3 innings. A 13th round pick by Toronto from Lehigh Valley last year, the 6-foot-5, 235-pound Svanson was exclusively a reliever with the D-Jays last year where he converted all five of his save opportunities. He posted a 2.30 ERA over 15 innings to go along with a 23-8 K/BB total. The 23 year-old Swanson was born in Lake Zurich, Illinois.
Continuing with the theme of new pitchers, Michael Dominguez makes his C’s debut at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday after being called up from Dunedin. The game will be on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Chad Dallas and Sem Robberse are listed as the probable starters for Vancouver on Thursday and Friday. Robberse was down in Dunedin to work on his pitches after being placed on the Development List.
In uniform number notes, Brown is now wearing number 6 after wearing 18 during the team’s weekend series in Spokane. The Oakville, Ontario native was originally assigned number 24 but has now opted to take the number 6 worn by Zach Britton earlier this year.
Radar Gun Rundown
The radar gun did not come alive until the third inning. Frasso had strikeouts at 84 and 97 miles per hour and was also at 82, 95 an 96. Paulino was in the 77-93 range with a strikeout at 80. Nuñez had strikeouts at 82, 95 and 98. Concepcion had two punchouts at 96 and was also at 83.
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