The Vancouver Canadians lost to the Everett AquaSox 7-5 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday.
Everett pounced on C’s starter Dahian Santos in the first inning. Harry Ford singled to center field on the second pitch of the game and Ben Ramirez doubled to right to get Ford over to third. A Walking Cabrera walk loaded the bases before Randy Bednar was hit in the left arm with a pitch to score Ford with the game’s first run. Santos struck out Charlie Welch looking at strike three but wound up walking James Parker on a close 3-2 pitch to bring home Ramirez. The ball four call drew some angry words from the C’s third base dugout. On the 30th pitch of the inning, Santos retired Mike Salvatore with a pop-up in foul terrify behind the plate for the third out.
Alan Roden began the Vancouver first with a double to the warning track in right field off Everett starter Jordan Jackson. A pair of two-out walks by Riley Tirotta and Cade Doughty loaded the bases but Michael Turconi struck out swinging.
Santos was more efficient with his next two innings as he needed just eight pitches to finish the second inning and nine pitches to get out of the third which included a Cabrera strikeout.
Jackson responded with a 1-2-3 second inning by getting Josh Kasevich lining out to second in the bottom of the second and handling a bunt attempt by Garrett Spain. Dasan Brown singled with one out in the third but Gabby Martinez hit into a 5-4-3 double play.
The top of the fourth began with Charlie Welch getting called out on strikes. Santos had to throw nine pitches before finally getting Parker to ground out to third. Mike Salvatore flew out to right to end another 1-2-3 frame.
Tirotta’s second base on balls from Jackson began the bottom of the fourth. Turconi singled to right to get Tirotta to third base. Kasevich hit a squibber back to the mound to scoe Tirotta and managed to reach first base in the process when Jackson’s flip back to the plate got away from Welch at the plate. Jackson recovered by getting Spain and Jommer Hernández on fly outs to center.
Lefty Naswell Paulino relieved Santos for the top of the fifth and was robbed of an out to begin the fifth. Colin Davis bunted the ball up the first base side which Tirotta fielded and tossed the ball to Paulino. Realizing that he was not going to be able to step on the bag in time, Paulino tagged Davis on the left arm before Davis reached the base. Paulino got the next three hitters in order as he struck Locklear out.
Kelvin Nuñez came into the game for Jackson in the bottom of the fifth inning and threw a called strike one to even the count to Roden. Nuñez threw 10 consecutive pitches that missed the strike zone resulting in walks to Roden, Brown and Martinez with nobody out. Doughty doubled to left to the track in left-center that was out of the reach of Davis to drive in Roden and Brown. Turconi followed with another two-bagger on the wall in left-center to score Martinez and Doughty to put Vancouver up 5-2. Tim Elliott relieved Nuñez and walked Kasevich on his first four pitches but struck out Spain and Hernández to end the rally.
Everett roared back in the sixth against Paulino. A base hit to left by Cabrera would come home on a one-out Welch home run off the left field foul pole to chop the C’s lead to 5-4. A Parker bloop single to center and wild pitch followed before Salvatore lined out to left. Matt Svanson was summoned from the C’s bullpen but he hit Davis in the leg with a pitch and walked Ford to load the bases. Ben Ramirez emptied the bags with a double off the center field wall out of the reach of a leaping Brown to put the Frogs ahead by two.
Roden collected his second double of the day off the wall in center against Elliott to start the home half of the sixth. However, Roden was tossed out at third by trying to advance on a Brown grounder to short as he was retired on a 6-5 fielder’s choice. Jarrod Bayless relieved Elliott and got Martinez to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.
Svanson struck out the side in the seventh by getting Cabrera looking and Bednar and Welch swinging. The C”s tried to rally again in the bottom of the seventh. Tirotta walked to start the frame and Turconi reached on a one-out infield single to third. They executed a double steal with Tirotta barely beating the throw with a leg first slide but they would not go any further. Kasevich grounded out to third with the infield drawn in on a 3-2 pitch and Spain popped out to second after Logan Rinehart replaced Bayless.
Devereaux Harrison worked the top of the eighth inning and walked Parker on four straight pitches. Parker was thrown out trying to steal second for the second out in the frame. Davis singled to left, Ford walked to load the bases and Ramirez made it to first on an infield single to the mound as Harrison could not corral the comebacker. Locklear then drove one out to the warning track in left-center field where Spain made the catch. Spain had moved from right to left field to replace Martinez as part of a series of defensive changes with Tirotta moving from first base to right and Rainer Nuñez coming in to handle first base.
Roden had a one-out base hit to left for his third hit of the day in the bottom of the eighth. After Rinehart got Brown to fly out to right, Michael Flynn came on in relief and gave up a single to right by Nuñez in his first at-bat of the day, taking Martinez’s spot in the order. Devonte Brown pinch-ran for Nuñez but he and Roden were stranded after Tirotta grounded out to second.
With Devonte Brown in right field and Tirotta returning to first base, T.J. Brock worked the ninth for Vancouver and had to navigate around a throwing error by Kasevich at short by striking out Bednar and Welch swinging and Parker grounding out to short.
Flynn got the first two outs of the ninth by getting Turconi to line out to second base for the second out. Kasevich walked to keep the inning alive and moved into scoring position on defensive indifference. Alex De Jesus came in to pinch-hit but was called out on strikes to end the game.
C-Notes
The C’s struggled with runners in scoring position, getting just two hits in 15 at-bats. Their record falls to 17-11 on the season.
The Canadians face the AquaSox one more time on Sunday. Hunter Gregory will have the first pitch in his sights at 1:05 on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
The Toronto Blue Jays made a pair of roster moves involving the Canadians before Saturday’s game. Catcher Karl Ellison has been promoted to Double-A New Hampshire after playing a dozen games for Monty’s Mounties. He batted .225 with four runs batted in and threw out five of 16 base stealers. Lyle Lin replaces Ellison in the C’s catching corps. The Taiwanese backstop had been on the Development List since signing with the Blue Jays as a free agent on April 10. He will be wearing number 36.
2019 and 2021 C’s infielder Tanner Morris delivered a walk-off single for Triple-A Buffalo as the Bisons defeated Syracuse 8-7. That was the Herd’s third straight walk-off win over the Mets.
Radar Gun Rundown
Santos slotted in at 79-95 miles per hour with strikeouts at 93, 80 and 91. Paulino had one punchout at 79 and ranged from 75-94. Svanson struck out batters at 93, 84 and 93 and was around 83-95. Harrison was around 82-95. Brock had K’s of 96 and 90 and was around 87-97.
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