The Vancouver Canadians stunned the Everett AquaSox with an 8-5 comeback victory at Funko Field at Everett Memorial Stadium on Wednesday.
Vancouver starter Adam Macko plunked Harry Ford with his second pitch of the game in the bottom of an eventful first inning. Two pitches later, C’s catcher Jommer Hernández had to leave the game after getting injured on a foul tip by Hogan Windish and was replaced by Lyle Lin. Macko would pick off Ford on a 1-3-4 play for the first out but Windish would reach base when Estiven Machado booted a ground ball at short. Alberto Rodriguez walked before Macko struck out Walking Cabrera for the second out. A wild pitch moved the runners up and Axel Sanchez delivered a two-out double to center field past a diving Dasan Brown to put Everett up 2-0. Macko ended the inning by whiffing Charlie Welch on three pitches.
Mike Salvatore had an infield single to second with one out in the second inning but that was all Macko would allow.
The C’s did not get their first runner on until Lin delivered an opposite-field single to right field with one out in the third inning. Machado struck out swinging and Lin was caught stealing to allow AquaSox starter Jimmy Joyce to face the minimum nine batters over three innings.
The Frogs would pad their lead in the third inning when Windish doubled down the left field line just past the glove of Alex De Jesús at third. A wild pitch sent Windish to third and Rodriguez would draw a walk to put men on the corners. Gabby Martinez made a sliding catch toward the left field line on a Cabrera fly ball but Windish tagged up and scored Everett’s third run. Sanchez then struck again as he homered to left field to put the Sox lead to 5-0. The inning ended with Welch looking at strike three and Randy Bednar striking out swinging.
Alan Roden put the C’s on the board by pulling a home run to right off Leon Hunter Jr. to begin the fourth. Garrett Spain followed suit by clearing the wall in right-center to pull Vancouver to within three.
De Jesús singled to left but he was picked off by Hunter. Peyton Williams drew a walk but Hunter got a pair of whiffs to stop the rally.
Eric Pardinho worked a 1-2-3 fourth inning for Vancouver that featured a called strike three to Blake Rambusch and a nice spear from De Jesús on a Ford line drive to close out the frame.
Luis Curvelo got a controversial first out in the top of the fifth when Brown appeared to foul a ball off his foot. The ball rolled towards Curvelo and he made the toss to first to complete the 1-3 putout. Brown never left the right-hand side of the batter’s box and went back to the dugout in disbelief while C’s manager Brent Lavallee came out to argue with home plate umpire Trevor Patience. Curvelo would strike out the next two men to finish off a perfect frame.
Pardinho issued a leadoff walk to Windish in the home half of the fifth but got Rodriguez hit into a 5-4 fielder’s choice. Cabrera singled past a diving Machado to left before another 5-4 fielder’s choice by Sanchez. That led to the ejection of Lavallee who felt Sanchez was out at first base. Lavallee let base umpire Jack Wason have it and Patience needed to get in front of his umpiring colleague to settle things down. Welch walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases but Pardinho got Randy Bednar to ground out to short to keep the Frogs off the board.
The C’s got a one-out base hit from Spain in the top of the sixth as he beat out a bouncer to first base but that was all Curvelo would allow.
Spain’s biggest impact of the sixth inning came when he made a diving catch in right on a sinking liner from Rambusch. That was the start of a 9-3 double play to double off a Salvatore leadoff walk from Cooper Benson.
Benson would go on to strike out Ford to get out of the inning unscathed.
Both teams exchanged zeros in the seventh with Jimmy Kingsbury shutting down the C’s and Benson blanking the Frogs by getting Windish to bounce back to the mound before striking out Rodriguez and Cabrera looking for a 1-2-3 frame of his own.
Peyton Alford came out of the Everett bullpen in the eighth and retired the first two men he faced as Rodriguez made a sliding catch on Machado for the second out. Alan Roden kept the inning going with a double high off the right-center field wall above the manual scoreboard. The ball nearly went out of the yard but Roden would come in to score on Spain’s double to right as he found a hole in the right side of the infield. De Jesús walked but Williams grounded out to third for the third out.
Matt Svanson needed just eight pitches to work a clean bottom of the eighth to give the Canadians one more crack at it in the ninth against Frogs closer Michael Flynn. Martinez fought off an 0-2 pitch with a single to right to begin the frame. Turconi lined out to third and Martinez was able to dive back to the first base bag in time to avoid getting doubled off. Brown struck out swinging and Flynn was a strike away from ending the game but Lin won the battle of the Lynns/Lins with a bloop single that just touched the green turf in front of a diving Cabrera in center to send Martinez to third. Machado then doubled to the wall in right field to score Martinez and close the gap to one run. Roden was then drilled in the back by a pitch to load the bases and Spain would unload them in a big way with a shot over the wall to straightaway center to give the C’s a three-run lead.
The Frogs got the potential tying run to the on-deck circle when Salvatore reached on a throwing error by Machado at short that Williams could only get a glove on at first. Machado did redeem himself when he handled a low throw from Svanson to force out Salvatore on a 1-6 fielder’s choice from Rambusch. Ford was retired on a chopper to short. Windish hit a grounder to first that appeared to take a funny hop off the turf that glanced off the glove of a diving Williams but Turconi ranged over from second and made the throw to Svanson covering first to get the final out of the game. That helped Svanson improve his record to 2-1.
C-Notes
Spain is now on a 13-game hitting streak to match his uniform number after going 4-for-5 with two homers, a double, a single, six runs batted in and an assist in right field.
The Canadians improve to 28-24 on the season and they remain tied with Spokane for first place in the Northwest League. Tri-City is one game back, Eugene is two games behind and Everett is 2-1/2 games off the pace as the first half of the season will end on June 22.
Rafael Sanchez is next up in the starting rotation for Vancouver for the third game of this series on Thursday. Game time is 7:05 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV. Dahian Santos and Devereaux Harrison are scheduled to start for the C’s on Friday and Saturday.
Thanks a million to Ben Abel for filling in with the C’s Recaps during my hiatus and to Nico McEwen for taking care of business on the press box front.
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