The Vancouver Canadians dropped a 4-3 decision to the Tri-City Dust Devils at Gesa Stadium.
Adrian Placencia put the Dust Devils ahead to stay just two batters into the game when he homered to right field for the first run of the game off Michael Dominguez. The C’s righthander sandwiched that homer with strikeouts of Werner Blakely and Arol Vera before striking out the side in order by getting Joe Stewart looking before whiffing Alexander Ramirez and Casey Dana.
Dominguez walked D’Shawn Knowles to begin the third and a stolen base and a Myles Emmerson swinging bunt moved Knowles around the bags before scoring on a Blakely single to center. Blakely swiped second and Placencia walked and they would score on a Vera base hit up the middle and a Gabe Matthews sacrifice fly to center respectively to make it 4-0 Tri-City. The fourth inning saw Dominguez strike out Ramirez to begin a 1-2-3 frame.
The C’s went down in order in order against Dust Devils lefty José Salvador in the first. A Cade Doughty one-out walk and a two-out infield single to second by Dasan Brown was stranded in the second. Jommer Hernández singled to start the second, stole second base and moved to third on a Devonte Brown fly out to right but could not score as Alan Roden grounded out to second and Gabby Martinez flew out to right. Doughty drew a walk in the fourth with one away but that was all the C’s would manage in that inning.
Vancouver’s best opportunity came in the fifth against Tri-City reliever Jake Smith. A Hernández walk and base hits to right and left by Devonte Brown and Roden loaded the bases with one out but Martinez struck out looking and Riley Tirotta went down swinging.
C’s lefty Naswell Paulino walked Emmerson to open the bottom of the fifth but he struck out Blakely on the way to getting the next three hitters in order.
Houston Harding came out of the Tri-City pen in the sixth and the first two men got on when Doughty walked and Alex De Jesus singled to left off Dana at third. However, Harding struck out Dasan Brown and Hernández to end the frame.
Devereaux Harrison pitched two perfect innings of relief for the Canadians in the sixth and seventh by striking out Matthews and Emerson along the way.
Vancouver finally scored in the seventh inning against Willian Suarez. A one-out double to right by Roden and walks to Martinez and Tirotta loaded the bases. Doughty’s groundout to first plated Roden before a Dana fielding error at third on a ground ball by De Jesus allowed Martinez to score and cut the Dust Devils lead to 4-2. Dasan Brown flew out to center to leave runners at the corners.
Hernández homered to left-center field off Suarez with one away in the top of the eighth inning for his second tater of the year. Roden doubled to right with two outs but Suarez struck out Devonte Brown and Martinez to preserve the one-run lead for the Dust Devils.
T.J. Brock retired Tri-City with a perfect eighth with strikeouts of Blakely and Vera.
A Doughty one-out walk—his fourth free pass of the night—was all Vancouver would get in the ninth as Kelvin Caceres picked up the save for the Dust Devils.
C-Notes
The Canadians lost two big arms on their pitching staff with the promotion of right-handers Chad Dallas and Connor Cooke to Double-A New Hampshire. Dallas went 2-0 with a 2.03 earned run average in five starts with the C’s, winning a Northwest League Pitcher of the Week award on May 7. The man known as Cheese racked up 124 strikeouts in 114-2/3 innings with the C’s over the 2022-2023 seasons. Cooke collected nine saves over the last two years with Monty’s Mounties and struck out a combined 31 batters over 20 innings. The Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajun product took over the closing role for the C’s after his promotion from Low-A Dunedin last August 2. All the best to Cheese and Connor in Manchester.
Coming to Vancouver is righty Rafael Sanchez who has been promoted to Dunedin. The 23-year-old from Antilla, Cuba went 5-0 with a 2.27 ERA with a 43-5 strikeout/walk ratio in 34-2/3 innings with the D-Jays. He was the Florida State League’s Pitcher of the Week for April 30 and the FSL Pitcher of the Month for April. Sanchez signed as a free agent with the Blue Jays on May 13, 2022, and split time with the Dominican Summer League, Florida Coast League and Dunedin Blue Jays where he struck out 60 batters and walked 16 while posting a 3.20 ERA over 59 innings. Sanchez will wear number 18.
Lefthander Braden Scott is back with the C’s after striking out the side in his only inning with the club last season. The 25-year-old from Bloomington, Indiana spent time with Dunedin and New Hampshire last year. Scott has yet to pitch this year as he was placed on the Development List on April 6. He has not been assigned a uniform number as of yet.
Righthander Sam Ryan is also back on the C’s roster from the Development but fellow righty Hunter Gregory is on the seven-day injured list after leaving his start on Sunday after just one inning.
Outfielder Garrett Spain will take over number 13 from Dallas after wearing number 35 to start the year. Perhaps it’s the Clarksville, Tennessee native’s way of saluting Dallas, the former Tennessee Volunteers hurler. Spain wore number 28 for Vancouver last year.
2019 and 2021 C’s righthander Parker Caracci was released by the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. Caracci was with Double-A New Hampshire this season and posted a 1-0 record with a 2.89 earned run average but had walked nine batters against six strikeouts in 9-1/3 innings. The two-time draftee of the Blue Jays in 2018 and 2019 was placed on the Development List back on April 13 before being activated 13 days later. The Ole Miss product spent most of last season with New Hampshire and tossed three shutout innings for Triple-A Buffalo. The 25-year-old from Jackson, Mississippi won five games and struck out 76 batters over 74 innings during his two years with the C’s. All the best to Parker in his future endeavours.
The Canadians face the Dust Devils again. The first pitch is at 1:30 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com. Abdiel Mendoza will slot into Dallas’ spot in the rotation. Adam Macko and Trenton Wallace are the probable starters for Vancouver on Thursday and Friday respectively.
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