The Vancouver Canadians were dummied by the Tri-City Dust Devils 9-2 at Gesa Stadium on Wednesday.
Alan Roden had a one-out double down the right field line with one out and scored on a Rainer Nuñez to left field in the first inning against Dust Devils starter John Swanda.
Vancouver starter Abdiel Mendoza began the bottom of the first with a strikeout of Joe Stewart before yielding an Adrian Placencia single to center. Placencia stole second and one pitch later, Gabe Matthews singled to center to tie the game at 1-1. Mendoza whiffed Werner Blakely but plunked Arol Vera with a pitch. A wild pitch moved the runners up but Osmy Gregorio flew out to right for the third out.
The C’s took the lead one pitch into the top of the second when Riley Tirotta homered to right field.
Osmy Gregorio tripled to center off the glove of a leaping Devonte Brown to start the bottom of the second. It was around that point the Vancouver radio feed and Gameday site went kaput and so did the C’s. A throwing error by Estiven Machado at second on a grounder from D’Shawn Knowles scored Gregorio with the tying run. Gustavo Campero singled to left and a Stewart tapper to the mound scored Knowles from third with the go-ahead run. A pair of singles to right by Placencia and Matthews scored Campero before Blakely hit a three-run homer to give Tri-City at 7-2. Eric Pardinho relieved Mendoza to get the final two outs, striking out Ramirez for the third out.
The third and fourth innings saw three-up, three-down innings from Swanda and Pardinho with the latter striking out Knowles and Campero swinging for the final two out of the thirds. Pardinho then got Placencia looking and Matthews swinging to finish off the fourth.
Machado had a bloop single to left in the fifth inning to end a streak of 10 Canadians retired in a row but Lyle Lin hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
Pardinho mowed down 10 hitters into the fifth that included a Blakely strikeout but Ramirez doubled off the wall in center. Ramirez thought the ball was out and did not hustle out of the box but still made it second anyways as the throw back to the outfield was not on target. Gregorio reached on an infield single to third to put runners at first and third. Knowles hit a ground-rule double to left to score Ramirez and Gregorio to make it 9-2. Pardinho struck out Campero to end the inning.
Roden singled to right and Nuñez made it to first on an infield single to second with one out in the sixth but they were stranded by Swanda.
Lefty Braden Scott came into the game for the Canadians in the bottom of the sixth and walked Placencia and plunked Matthews with one out. Placencia swiped third but Blakely hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
Tirotta doubled to right and De Jesus singled to left to begin the top of the seventh. Swanda was replaced at that point and left due to injury. Roman Phansalkar took over for Tri-City on the bump and struck out Machado. De Jesus stole second base and Devonte Brown walked to load the bases but that was bracketed by Lin and Roden striking out.
Justin Kelly entered the game from the C’s bullpen in the bottom of the seventh and needed just seven pitches to take care of Tri-City, including a strikeout of Vera.
Phansalkar struck out Doughty to spin a perfect frame of his own in the top of the eighth. Sam Ryan worked the bottom of inning eight for the C’s and struck out Knowles on three straight pitches after falling behind on a pitch count violation. He fanned Campero and Stewart for a spotless stanza.
The C’s were down quietly in the ninth when Phansalkar struck out Tirotta before internet problems struck again at Gesa Stadium but it was just as well and quite appropriate given the final result. Nothing was missed as the side was retired in order.
C-Notes
The C’s lost their fourth in a row and fall to 17-14 on the season.
Adam Macko will be on the mound on Thursday for the C’s against the Dust Devils. The game will be on at 6:35 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com. Trenton Wallace and Rafael Sanchez will get the starting assignments for Friday’s doubleheader.
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