The Vancouver Canadians won 9-0 and lost 8-6 to split a doubleheader Tri-City Dust Devils at Gesa Stadium Friday.
Vancouver starter Trenton Wallace walked Joe Stewart and Adrian Placencia in the bottom of the first inning but catcher Jommer Hernández managed to pick off Stewart at second for the first out. Wallace got out of the inning with a strikeout of Werner Blakely. That was the first of five consecutive whiffs for Wallace as he struck out the side in the second and opened the third with a whiff. He overcame a Stewart double to right to put up another shutout frame.
Tri-City starter Sammy Natera Jr. set down the side in order in the first two frames with a strikeout string of three in a row. Hernández doubled off the wall in center with one out in the top of the third for the first hit of the game. Garrett Spain flew out to right to allow Hernández to tag up to third but Alan Roden flew out to center on the next pitch.
Rainer Nuñez broke the ice for Vancouver with one out in the top of the fourth as he took Natera deep to left-center field to make it 1-0 C’s. Alex De Jesus doubled to the left field corner.and Michael Turconi singled to left to get De Jesus over to third. Josh Kasevich produced a deep enough fly ball to allow De Jesus to tag up and score to put the Canadians up by two.
Wallace gave up a broken-bat single to Osmy Gregorio to start the bottom of the fourth but a strikeout of Arol Vera came in the midst of the next three Dust Devils to go down in order.
Vancouver squandered a big opportunity against Dust Devils reliever Emilker Guzman in th top of the fifth. A single to right by Hernandez and a double off the center field wall by Spain put two runners in scoring position. Nuñez was intentionally walked with two outs but De Jesus flew out to left to leave the bases loaded.
A pair of one-out walks to D’Shawn Knowles —who stole second—and Casey Dana led to Wallace leaving the game. Though a passed ball complicated matters, Justin Kelly stranded the runners on a pair of fly outs to center by Stewart and Placencia.
The C’s wasted another opportunity in the sixth against Guzman when Turconi walked and Kasevich singled to left. Dasan Brown hit into a 6-5 fielder’s choice to force out Turconi. A Hernández fly out to right got Kasevich to third before Brown stole second. Spain was hit by a pitch but Roden grounded out to short to leave the bases loaded.
After Kelly retired the Dust Devils in order in the bottom of the sixth, the C’s put the game away against Jake Smith in the top of the seventh. One-out walks to Nuñez and Turconi with a base hit to left by De Jesus in between loaded the bases. A Kasevich single to right scored Nuñez and Dasan Brown had a base knock to right to drive in De Jesus and Turconi to make it a 5-0 game. Brown stole second and he and Kasevich came home on a Hernández base knock to right. Roden drew a walk to extend his on-base streak to 16 games with two outs before Cade Doughty plated Hernández and Roden to force Smith’s exit from the game. Nathan Burns was called in to put an end to the C’s seven-run rally.
Knowles had a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh for Tri-City but T.J. Brock struck out Gustavo Campero and Dana looking to end the game.
Rafael Sanchez made his C’s debut in the second game and had a 1-2-3 first inning that featured a strikeout of Werner Blakely. It was a different story in the second inning when he gave up a Steven Rivas one-out double to left that drove in an Arol Vera leadoff single and Osmy Gregorio walk.
Vancouver responded against Nick Mondak with three runs in the bottom of the second (the C’s had the last at-bat in this game as it was a make-up on the April 16 game that was rained out at Nat Bailey Stadium). Alex De Jesus tripled to left and scored when Mondak could not handle a sharp single up the middle by Josh Kasevch. A double to left by Dasan Brown advanced Kasevich to third before an Estiven Machado groundout to first scored Kasevich with the tying run. A Lyle Lin fielder’s choice to third allowed Brown to come home to give the C’s a 3-2 lead. Devonte Brown singled to left to get Lin to second but Gabby Martinez and Rainer Nuñez both struck out to end the rally.
The lead was gone two batters into the third as Blakely singled to right before Gabe Matthews homered to right for a two-run homer off Sanchez. Vera doubled to right and scored on a Gregorio single up the middle before Ramirez ripped a double to left to drive in Gregorio to make it 6-3 Dust Devils. Sanchez retired the next three men he faced with strikeouts with Rivas and Kyle Lovelace.
Tri-City increased their lead against Sam Ryan who issued a couple of one-out walks to Blakely and Matthews. A wild pitch and two singles to right by Vera and Gregorio gave Tri-City an 8-3 lead. Vera tried to steal home but was caught after Lin’s throw to second on the double steal attempt was returned by Machado for a 2-4-2 caught stealing. Dust Devils manager Jack Howell disagreed and was ejected by home plate umpire Tatum Littleton.
The C’s got one run back when Lin led off the fourth with a base hit to center. He moved to second on a Devonte Brown groundout to first and scored on a Nuñez two-out single to left to make it an 8-4 game.
Lefty Braden Scott overcame a Myles Emmerson one-out walk by striking out Rivas, Lovelace and Stewart swinging to finish the fifth. Scott worked around
The C’s got a single to left from De Jesus and a double to right off Kasevich against Dust Devils reliever Erik Martinez in the bottom of the fifth. A pair of groundouts to second by Dasan Brown and Machado brought in De Jesus and Kasevich respectively.
Mason Fluharty walked Myles Emmerson with one out but struck out Rivas and Lovelace swinging to give the C’s offence another shot at coming back.
Kaseviich singled to second with two outs in the seventh off Nick Jones but Dasan Brown fouled out to first to end the game.
C-Notes
2022-2023 C’s righthander Chad Dallas struck out nine and pitched seven shutout innings to get the victory in his Double-A debut as New Hampshire blanked Binghamton 6-0 on Friday.
Righthander Abdiel Mendoza has been placed on the seven-day injured list. The 24-year-old from Chitre, Panama saw his earned run average go from 2.21 to 4.57 after giving up six earned runs over 1-1/3 innings during Wednesday’s loss In Tr-City. Conor Larkin has been reinstated from the Development List after being placed there on May 9.
The Canadians and Dust Devils go at it again Saturday at 6:35 p.m. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com. Dahian Santos gets the start for Vancouver. Devereaux Harrison will get the ball to start Sunday’s finale.
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