The Vancouver Canadians bested the Everett AquaSox 3-1 in 10 innings at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday.
Reigning Northwest League Pitcher of the Week Chad Dallas had a pair of baserunners to deal with in the top of the first. Ben Ramirez ripped a single up the middle with one out but he was caught stealing by Karl Ellison at second base. Hogan Windish drew a walk but he was forced out on a 6-4 fielder’s choice by Tyler Locklear for the third out.
Everett lefthander Reid VanScoter walked Devonte Brown to begin the bottom of the first and a Dasan Brown sacrifice bunt to the mound put a runner in scoring position but Rainer Nuñez popped out to short and Gabby Martinez struck out.
Walking Cabrera singled to left for Everett to open the top of the second and stole second base on a Mike Salvatore strikeout. Cole Barr grounded out to third to keep Cabrera at second. The inning ended when Ellison threw out Cabrera trying to steal third.
The Canadians first hit was a two-out single by Josh Kasevich in the second inning that deflected off the glove of Frogs second baseman Cole Barr into right field but Michael Turconi‘s fielder’s choice to short ended the inning.
Devonte Brown ran one down off the bat of Colin Davis towards the right field corner in the top of the third. A two-out walk by Harry Ford was left when Dallas struck out Ramirez swinging.
Dasan Brown generated some excitement in the bottom of the third with an infield single to the mound that was chopped the ball off home plate. He wound up at third on a headfirst slide after a throwing error by VanScoter who made an off-balance throw near the third base side. It was all for naught when Nuñez struck out on a foul tip.
Dallas struck out Locklear in the midst of a 1-2-3 top of the fourth but VanScoter also retired all three men he faced in the bottom half by bookending the frame with a pair of punchouts.
Everett would break the shutout in the top of the fifth when Mike Salvatore slammed one in the C’s bullpen in left field for a leadoff homer. Davis walked with one out, stole second and made it to third on a passed ball but Dallas struck out Erik Stock and Harry Ford swinging to limit the damage.
A time-count violation led to ball three before Ellison heard ball four with two outs in the home half of the fifth but VanScoter retired Devonte Brown on a fly ball to center.
The AquaSox threatened to score again in the sixth when Windish belted a triple off the right field wall past a leaping Devonte Brown with one out. Dallas would get out of danger by whiffing Locklear and retiring Cabrera on a fly ball to center on pitch number 96.
The C’s would get Dallas off the hook in the their half of the sixth. Nuñez singled to left with one out and Martinez hit one off the short left field fence for a double to put two runners on. Riley Tirotta hit a deep enough fly ball to right to allow Nuñez to tag up and score. A Ramirez fielding error at third on a broken-bat ground ball by Doughty sent Martinez over to third but VanScoter was bailed out by his second baseman as Barr made a diving catch to rob Kasevich of an RBI single to keep the game tied.
Hunter Gregory made fairly quick work of the Frogs in the seventh by striking out Salvatore and Barr en route to a perfect stanza. Everett reliever Tyler Driver only faced three batters in the bottom of the inning as he got a 6-4-3 double play ball off the bat of Ellison to negate a Turconi leadoff single to center.
Everett had two runners in scoring position with one out against C’s reliever Matt Svanson after Ford singled up the middle and Ramirez doubled off the center field wall over a jumping Dasan Brown near the manual scoreboard. Svanson stayed the course by striking out Windish on three pitches and retiring Locklear on a groundout to second. Svanson nearly came up with the ball on the barehand but it did make its way to Doughty for him to complete the 4-3 putout.
AquaSox lefty Peyton Alford came on for the top of the eighth and gave up a Nuñez double that first appeared to be caught by a leaping Cabrera in center. Nuñez was originally ruled out by base umpire Shin Koishizawa but C’s manager Brent Lavallee came out to argue as Nuñez jumped up and down in frustration to plead his case that he earned an extra-base knock. Canadians broadcaster Tyler Zickel pointed out on MiLB.TV that Cabrera immediately threw the ball back to the infield, indicating that the ball was trapped against the wall instead of being caught. Koishizawa and home plate umpire Cas Cousins then got together to discuss the call before requesting to chat with Everett manager Ryan Scott. The two-men umpiring crew conferred with each other once again before Cousins ultimately ruled that Nuñez did indeed hit a double. That drew the ire of Scott who vehemently argued but it was to no avail. It was a lengthy delay and it almost seemed to be a delayed reaction to a Jedi mind trick on the umps by Lavallee. After all that, the C’s could not take advantage. Garrett Spain took over to pinch-run for Nuñez at second base but he would remain 180 feet away as Alford struck out Martinez and took care of Tirotta with a fly ball to right.
With Nuñez out of the game, the C’s had to shuffle their infield by moving Tirotta to first base, Doughty to third and inserting Estiven Machado into the game at second. T.J. Brock took over on the mound for the top of the ninth and struck out Salvatore swinging to make short work of the AquaSox.
Alford was back out for the bottom of the ninth for Everett and he made sure there would be no controversy to deal with as he struck out the side to send the game into the 10th inning.
Brock began his second inning of work and was teetering on the brink of giving up the lead. A wild pitch moved the placed runner Barr from second base to third before Brock drilled Davis in the right hand to put men on the corners. Stock produced what appeared to be a sacrifice fly to center on an 0-2 pitch to allow Barr to score the go-ahead run. However, Brock appealed the play by lobbing the ball over to Doughty at the third base bag and Cousins ruled Barr was out for leaving the third base bag too early for an 8-1-5 double play. Brock was not out of the woods yet as Davis was at third on the play. After walking Ford, Brock got Ramirez to ground out to Tirotta at first for the unassisted putout.
Turconi was the placed runner at second for Everett reliever Kyle Hill to deal with. The righty struck out the first two men he faced and got ahead of Dasan Brown at one ball and two strikes before the pride of Oakville, Ontario sent the fans home happy. Randy Bednar—who replaced Davis in left field after being plunked on the hand—hung over the short fence in left but he could not haul it in as Brown’s two-run homer into the C’s bullpen gave Vancouver its third walk-off win of 203.
C-Notes
Vancouver upped its record to 15-10 to move one-half game of Eugene for first place in the Northwest League standings.
The Canadians face the AquaSox Thursday. First pitch is at 7:05 on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV. Lefthander Adam Macko will get the ball for Monty’s Mounties. Trenton Wallace, Dahian Santos and Hunter Gregory round out the probable starters for Vancouver this week.
Radar Gun Rundown
Dallas was at 81 to 96 miles per hour and had strikeouts at 93, 84, 84, 85, 93 and 87. Gregory was at 84-98 with two punchouts at 94. Svanson had a strikeout at 87 and was around 85-98. Brock had a K of 88 and was up to 98.
C-IGs
C-Tweets
C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog 