The Vancouver Canadians fell to the Eugene Emeralds 4-2 at P.K. Park Thursday.
The Emeralds took a first inning lead when Carter Williams homered off Chad Dallas with one out to put the home side up 1-0.
Eugene added on to their lead in the fifth when Luis Matos led off with a single to center on a 1-2 pitch from Troy Watson and made it to third when Vaun Brown also had a base hit up the middle with one out. Jairo Pomares brought both runners in with a double to left.
Vancouver got their first run in the sixth inning off Mason Black. A Glenn Santiago single to right started the frame and he went to third on a one-out double to left by Alex De Jesus. Evan Gates took over for Black and got Gabby Martinez to ground out to third but that scored Santiago to get the C’s on the board.
The Emeralds would score again in the seventh inning against Mason Fluharty who was a strike away from getting out of the inning but he walked Brown on a 3-2 pitch. Brown stole second and scored on a Pomares single up the middle.
A two-out rally in the ninth was staged by the Canadians. Rainer Nuñez drew a walk against Ty Weber and Riley Tirotta singled to left. P.K. Morris followed with a single to left to score pinch-runner Hugo Cardona but Garrett Spain struck out with runners on the corners to end the game.
C-Notes
Dallas only made it through three-plus innings and walked five batters, though he erased a Brown walk in the first inning by picking him off. The former Tennessee Volunteer managed to get out of walking the bases loaded in the third inning by striking out Andy Thomas, an inning that allowed featured an errant pickoff throw by Andrés Sosa behind the plate with Simon Whiteman at first, a stolen base by Brown and a walk by Pomares.
Dallas’ “easiest inning” was stranding a two-out single by Jimmy Glowenke in the second but he needed 74 pitches to complete three innings, throwing just 38 of them for strikes. He left the game after a ground-rule double to left by Toribio and a walk to Whiteman to open up the fourth. The righthander gave up three hits and five walks and struck out three.
Watson stranded Dallas’ runners by getting Wright to hit into a 4-6-3 double play and and getting Whiteman to ground out to short. However, Watson surrendered two runs on three hits in two innings and struck out two. Fluharty gave up a run on a hit and a walk with two punchouts in the seventh. Jol Concepcion had the only scoreless outing for Vancouver by striking out two of three batters he faced in the eighth.
Nuñez had the first Vancouver hit with a leadoff single in the second inning but he was forced out on a Tirotta 4-6 fielder’s choice.
De Jesus and Nuñez walked in the fourth inning but De Jesus was erased on a Martinez 4-6-3 double play ball. In the sixth inning, Nuñez struck out swinging to lead De Jesus at third in the sixth after his double. That extra-base knock was the last Vancouver hit until Tirotta’s two-out RBI single in the ninth.
De Jesus doubled and walked in his C’s debut while Nuñez had a hit and two walks. Tirotta, Morris and Santiago had the other base knocks. Vancouver was 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and stranded five men on base.
Vancouver falls to 23-15 in the second half, 1-1/2 games behind Eugene for first place. Overall, the C’s are out of a playoff position as their 53-48 record leaves them a half-game back of Spokane for second place. With Eugene having clinched a first half playoff berth, the C’s need to at least finish ahead of Spokane in the overall standings if they cannot catch the Emeralds in the second half.
Sem Robberse is on the hill next for Vancouver while Nick Swiney goes for Eugene. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
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