The Vancouver Canadians fell to the Everett AquaSox 8-4 at Nat Bailey Stadium Saturday.
The Frogs got to Trenton Wallace in the third inning when Cole Barr led off with a walk. Barr was forced out on a 6-4 fielder’s choice by Alberto Rodriguez but Josh Morgan homered into the C’s left field bullpen to put Everett in front 2-0. Mike Salvatore followed with a walk, Trent Tingelstad singled to right and James Parker walked to load the bases. A two-out walk by Justin Lavey scored Salvatore with the third AquaSox run.
The C’s got one back in the third against Juan Mercedes. Glenn Santiago led off with a triple to right-center field and he would score on a sacrifice fly to the middle outfield by Hugo Cardona.
Vancouver drew closer in the fourth when Damiano Palmegiani blooped a single to center with nobody out. He stole second with two outs before Garrett Spain smacked a double off the right-center field wall off Mercedes to drive in Palmegiani.
The Frogs responded with another long ball as Parker drilled a ball over the left-center field wall on an 0-2 pitch by Matt Svanson to start the top of the fifth.
The Canadians would pull even in the bottom half of the fifth. Dasan Brown worked a one-out walk on a full-count pitch before Leo Jiménez homered to left on a 1-2 pitch from Mercedes to even the score at 4-4.
Everett quickly regained the lead in the top of the sixth. Rodriguez tripled to left off Sean Wymer as Santiago was unable to make a diving catch near the left field line. Morgan brought Rodriguez home with a sacrifice fly to center. The game had been delayed for a few minutes earlier in the at-bat when a foul ball by Morgan smashed a light bulb and shook up the MiLB.TV camera operator near the press box manual scoreboard on the first base side. The camera operator was shaken up but was okay.
The AquaSox added insurance in the eight against Will McAffer. Justin Lavey drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch and would get to third on a stolen base and a throwing error by Jommer Hernandez from behind the plate. Colin Davis then belted a two-run homer that cleared the porch in left field to make it 7-4 Everett.
Outfielder Mack Mueller was called in to pitch the ninth. He was a strike away from a 1-2-3 inning but Parker walked on a 3-2 pitch. Mueller had Sheaffer down in the count at 1-2 but gave up a double to right to score Parker with the final run of the game.
C-Notes
Wallace struck out the side in the first two innings. The lefthander stranded a two-out Salvatore triple to center that just eluded Brown by ringing up Rodriguez and Morgan looking and Tingelstad swinging. He sat down Parker, Sheaffer and Davis swinging to work around a Lavey two-out walk.
Svanson took over for Wallace after Lavey’s bases-loaded walk in the third inning and needed just one pitch to end the frame as Palmegiani ran to the third base bag for the unassisted forceout.
Svanson hit Barr in the left arm with a pitch to open the fourth but Hernandez threw him out trying to steal second. Rodriguez followed with a single to left but was forced out on a 4-6 fielder’s choice by Morgan whose chopper took a while to come down and Jiménez could only get the force play at second. Svanson then plunked Salvatore in the left hip to push Morgan to second before ending the inning with a 6-3 groundout by Tingelstad.
Hernandez threw out Barr trying to steal second again after a single that followed Davis’ home run in the eighth.
Riley Tirotta had the first hit for Vancouver with a leadoff single in the second inning. He stole second base with one out but he was left there as P.K. Morris struck out swinging and Hernandez struck out swinging to bracket a Spain popup to short.
Brown followed Cardona’s sacrifice fly in the third inning with a double to center field but he was thrown out at third on an 8-4-5 play.
Hernandez drew a walk after Spain’s RBI double in the fourth inning but Santiago grounded out to third to strand the two runners.
Another free pass by Hernandez with two outs in the sixth against Luis Curvelo was also stranded when Santiago hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice. Before Hernandez’s free pass, Spain was robbed of a hit when Davis made a diving catch on a sinking liner in center.
Cardona was hit in the ribs by a Curvelo pitch to begin the seventh but a hit and run was botched when Brown was jammed with a weak foul out to first and Sheaffer came in a few feet to make the catch and ran back to step on the bag for an unassisted double play. Jiménez struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch to end that inning.
After a 1-2-3 eighth inning by Tim Elliott, Isaiah Campbell allowed a one-out single to right but Santiago grounded out into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
Vancouver falls to 17-11 and are now a half-game behind Eugene for top spot in the second half Northwest League standings. Everett is now two games out of first place.
The Canadians will try to salvage the series finale against the AquaSox. Lefthander Jimmy Robbins is slated to throw the first pitch at 1:05 p.m. No starter has been announced for Everrett. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Congratulations to 2017 Canadians lefthander Jake Fishman for being called up by the Miami Marlins. The 27 year-old from Newton, Massachusetts had a 1.87 earned run average over 43-1/3 innings and recorded a strikeout-walk total of 43-16 at Triple-A Jacksonville. A 30th round pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016 out of Union College, Fishman contributed to the C’s Northwest League championship five years ago with a 1-0 record and a 1.17 ERA over 23 innings with a K/BB total of 23-4. He was claimed on waivers by Miami in December of 2020.
The Blue Jays have announced the release of C’s pitcher Mark Simon and infielder Francisco Fajardo. Simon had a tough start to the year but was coming around as he was scored upon just once over his last five appearances out of the bullpen. All the best to the Houston, Texas native in his future endeavours.
Fajardo played two games for Monty’s Mounties. He hit the first Northwest League pitch he saw and scored a run in a win over Hillsboro at The Nat July 13. His final game with Vancouver saw him play second base as a late-inning defensive replacement July 16. The 22 year-old from San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic played his final game with Dunedin July 23 and went 1-for-3 with a run scored. All the best to Fajardo in his future endeavours.
Congratulations goes out to 2014 C’s pitching coach Jeff Ware for being named the interim manager of the Buffalo Bisons. Ware has been in charge of the Bisons hurlers for the past two seasons and takes over the managerial reins from Casey Candaele. The former Montreal Expo and 2019 C’s manager was named Toronto’s bench coach when the Blue Jays appointed 2011, 2014-2015 C’s skipper John Schneider to the managerial role after the recent firing of Charlie Montoyo.
Radar Gun Rundown
Wallace whacked the AquaSox with strikeouts at 80, 92, 80, 82, 80 and 84 miles per hour and was also at 77. Svanson had a strikeout at 94 and was around 85-96. Wymer whacked two batters at 89 twice and was around 78-90. McAffer was around 83-95 and Mueller mauled a couple of batters at 87 and 86 and was around 72-88.
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