The Vancouver Canadians losing streak is up to four after an 11-3 loss to the Everett AquaSox at Funko Field Sunday.
The C’s got a one-out base hit to right by Alan Roden in the top of the first but AquaSox starter Jimmy Kingsbury did not give up any other hard contact with Dasan Brown striking out before Roden’s hit and Alex De Jesus and Gabby Martinez popping up in the middle infield.
Everett seemed poised for a big inning in the first against Vancouver starter Hunter Gregory. Jonatan Clase laid down a bunt single to third on the first pitch of the game and stole second base. However, Gregory picked off Clase trying to swipe third. After getting Harry Ford to fly out to right, The AquaSox got back-to-back doubles from Ben Ramirez to right and Tyler Locklear to center producing the game’s first run.
Vancouver tied it on Kingsbury’s first pitch of the second when Cade Doughty homered to center field.
Josh Kasevich followed with a walk and Garrett Spain drew a one-out free pass but Kingsbury struck out the side by whiffing Riley Tirotta, Jommer Hernández and Brown.
Gregory kept the game tied with a three-up, three-down second inning with a strikeout of Charlie Welch.
The Canadians had two runners on in the third when Martinez reached on an infield single to short and Doughty was hit by a pitch with two outs but Kasevich was caught looking at strike three.
The defence helped Gregory start the bottom of the third inning when Blake Rambusch singled to right field but Spain was able to throw out Rambusch at second with De Jesus applying the tag. Clase was retired on a fly ball to right for the second out but Ford drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch and Ramirez and Locklear teamed up to key another two-out rally with Ramirez doubling to center to score Ford before Locklear cleared the fence in right-center for a two-run homer to give Everett a 4-1 lead. Axel Sanchez drew a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Randy Bednar base hit to make it 5-1 AquaSox. Abdiel Mendoza replaced Gregory on the hill and walked Welch before ending the inning with a pop out to second by Erik Stock.
Kelvin Nuñez kept the C’s off the board with a perfect fourth inning and Mendoza matched that zero by striking out Clase looking and picking off Ford at first after his two-out single to center.
The Canadians made it a two-run game in the top of the fifth when Brown worked a leadoff walk and scored on a Roden home run to right.
Doughty doubled to left with two outs before Kasevich lined out to left.
Conor Larkin looked like he would get the C’s hitters back in the batter’s box quickly after retiring Ramirez and Locklear with his first two pitches in the bottom of the fifth. However, Sanchez was hit by a pitch and that was the beginning of yet another two-out rally. Sanchez stole second, Bednar walked and Welch doubled them home with a line drive to left to put Everett up 7-3. A Stock walk and a Rambusch single up the middle brought in Welch before Clase smacked a three-run homer to cap off a six-run rally. The inning finally ended when Ford went down swinging.
Mason Fluharty worked the sixth for Vancouver and struck out the side by getting Ramirez, Sanchez and Bednar to whiff to strand a one-out Locklear single to right.
Tim Elliott and Tyler Driver worked a perfect sixth and seventh for Everett and Connor Cooke put up a zero for Vancouver in the seventh with two strikeouts. Rambusch reached on a strikeout/wild pitch and went to second when Cooke uncorked another wild offering but he got Clase looking at strike three to end the frame.
Vancouver had a two-out base hit off Driver when Kasevich singled up the middle but he was thrown out at second by Clase on an 8-6 putout.
T.J. Brock worked around a De Jesus fielding error at short in the eighth that allowed Rambusch to get on base with one out by ending the inning with a strikeout of Sanchez.
Tirotta worked a leadoff walk off Michael Flynn in the ninth but there was no hard contact to follow as middle infield pop-ups from Brown and Spain bracketed a Hernández strikeout to end the game.
C-Notes
Sadly, losing five of six games in a series is nothing new for Vancouver these days. It happened to them twice in the second half of last season, both times at the hands of the Eugene Emeralds. The Emeralds won five straight in Eugene before the C’s managed to salvage the series finale last August. Though the C’s clinched their playoff spot against Eugene at the Nat on September 7, the Emeralds won the other five games of that series to finish out the regular season before sweeping the C’s in three straight in last year’s Northwest League final. And guess who the C’s face next? The Eugene Emeralds. The 10-4 Em’s face the 5-6 C’s for a six-game series beginning Tuesday at Nat Bailey Stadium. The first three games are 7:05 p.m. starts and the last three begin at 1:05 p.m. The games are CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel calling the action.
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