The Vancouver Canadians outslugged the Everett AquaSox 10-6 at Funko Field at Everett Memorial Stadium on Sunday.
The C’s faced Everett starter Brandon Schaeffer for the second time in the series and the former North Carolina Tar Heel looked to duplicate his 6-1/3 shutout inning performance against the C’s on Tuesday. The lefty plunked Andrés Sosa on the right foot with two outs in the first but that was all he would surrender.
Ryan Jennings made his C’s debut on the mound Sunday and walked Blake Rambusch to begin the bottom of the first. Rambusch stole second and moved to third on a Ben Ramirez ground ball to second before Jennings struck out Alberto Rodriguez looking at strike three.
Jennings yielded a one-out base hit to left field to Axel Sanchez who promptly swiped second and pilfered third with two outs but Charlie Welch fouled out to Cade Doughty at third to conclude the bottom of the second.
Schaeffer worked a spotless second inning and worked around an Alan Roden hit by pitch to his back to end the third.
The AquaSox would draw first blood with a one-out rally in the third. Rambusch walked and stole second base before coming home on a Harry Ford triple to the left-center field wall. Jennings would keep Ford at third by striking out Ramirez before Garrett Spain made a diving catch on a sinking liner by Rodriguez in right field.
The Canadians would finally solve Schaeffer in the top of the fourth. Sosa lined a single to left with one out and was moved to second on a swinging bunt to the mound by Doughty. Alex De Jesús then doubled to the right field fence to score Sosa with the tying run. A Gabby Martinez ground out to short got De Jesús to third base. A shallow pop-up to second by Spain was dropped by James Parker at second as he was battling the sun and was not wearing shades. The play was ruled as a Spain infield single and that allowed De Jesús to score Vancouver’s second run. Spain swiped second but he would be stranded there.
In the bottom of the fourth, Hogan Windish punched a single to right but Jennings got a 5-4 fielder’s choice from Sanchez and a 5-4-3 double play by Parker to get out of danger.
After Schaeffer retired the side in order in the top of the fifth, Ryan Boyer was summoned from the Vancouver arm barm to look and he plunked Rambusch in the left elbow with two away before getting out of the inning.
A leadoff walk to Andrés Sosa in the sixth did not go anywhere as Schaeffer put up a zero. Abdiel Mendoza replaced Boyer in the home half of the frame and gave up a “double” to the right-center field wall by Alberto Rodriguez. Spain got to the ball and threw it to the shortstop De Jesús covering second base but base umpire Jack Wason believed De Jesús missed the tag so Rodriguez was safe. De Jesús could not believe the call and neither could manager Brent Lavallee but the call stood. Mendoza made it a moot point by striking out Windish and getting Sanchez first-pitch swinging on a fly out to left.
Everett manager Ryan Scott went to the bullpen for the first time by tabbing Luis Curvelo to work the seventh. The C’s were happy to see the last of Schaeffer as they were able to open up some breathing room. Dasan Brown took Curvelo to right-center field to the right of the manual scoreboard for a one-out solo homer. Two pitches later, Lyle Lin flared a single near the left field foul line and scored on a two-out home run to center by Michael Turconi as he jumped on a 0-2 pitch to increase the Vancouver lead to 5-1.
The Frogs got a dinger of their own when Parker took Mendoza deep to right-center to begin the bottom of the seventh. Welch then walked but was erased when Erik Stock rapped into a 4-6-3 double play. Rambusch wore a baseball once again on the left leg to get on base much to his chagrin but Harry Ford forced Rambusch out on a 6-4 play to end the frame.
Peyton Alford took care of business for the AquaSox in the top of the eighth and fellow southpaw Naswell Paulino put up a zero in the bottom of the eighth after overcoming a Windish two-out walk. Roden ran down a liner to left from Sanchez to end the stanza.
Vancouver would explode for a big ninth inning against Michael Flynn. Spain doubled to the wall in right-center and Brown beat out a grounder to short for an infield knock as Sanchez could only make a diving stop towards the hole. Lin singled to right to load the bases. Roden took one back up the middle to cash in Spain and Brown to put the C’s up 7-2. Turconi walked to reload the bases to chase Flynn from the game. Logan Rinehart trotted in from the left field bullpen and got two outs by leaping to snare a comebacker from Sosa to start a 1-2-3 double play. The Canadians were undeterred, specifically Doughty, as he cleared the wall in right-center for a three-run shot to make it a 10-2 ball game.
With a two-grand slam lead, Eric Pardinho was called in for the bottom of the ninth for the Canadians. Things did not begin well as Parker drew a leadoff walk and Welch singled off the left wall to get Parker over to third. A sacrifice fly to center by Stock brought in Parker for the third Everett run. Rambusch heard ball four to put two men on for Ford and he belted a home run to right-center to chop the C’s lead in half. Ramirez would end Pardinho’s day by doubling off the left center field wall. Justin Kelly retired Rodriguez on a fly ball to center. The Frogs got the potential tying run on deck when Kelly hit Windish in the left arm on a 3-2 pitch but the game was over on the next pitch as Sanchez hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
C-Notes
Sunday’s win goes to Ryan Boyer who is on a rehab assignment. There’s a good chance he may get the call back to Double-A New Hampshire in the coming days.
Two pitchers who may report to Vancouver in the future are right-handers C.J. Van Eyk and Anders Tolhurst. The two hurlers are on rehab stints with the Dunedin and Florida Coast League Blue Jays respectively. Van Eyk—the Toronto Blue Jays 2020 second-round pick from Florida State and 2021 Canadian—has allowed just one run over 10 innings in a combined three starts with the D-Jays. Tolhurst—the Jays 23rd round pick in 2019 from Grossmont College—has three shutout frames under his belt over a couple of appearances in the FCL.
In what cannot be a shock to anyone in attendance at Funko Field on Saturday, Devereaux Harrison was named the Northwest League Pitcher of the Week for June 5-11. The righthander allowed just three walks and struck out eight over six no-hit innings during Saturday’s 2-0 Game 2 win over Everett. That marks the second time this year Harrison won the NWL top hurler honours. He joins Chad Dallas, Trenton Wallace and Dahian Santos as this year’s weekly winners.
Harrison’s no-no is the first C’s no-hitter since 2007 when Brad Hertzler pitched five perfect frames at Nat Bailey Stadium in a rain-shortened game on July 18 when Vancouver blanked Spokane 1-0.
The Canadians return to Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday to begin a six-game series against the Hillsboro Hops. Michael Dominguez is slated to sling the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Adam Macko is listed as Vancouver’s probable starter for Wednesday.
Vancouver and Spokane share identical 31-25 records atop the Northwest League standings with nine games left to go in the first half. Spokane will play host to Eugene while Tri-City is at home to Everett. The Dust Devils are 1-1/2 games back of first place while Eugene, Everett and Hillsboro round out the rest of the standings 3-1/2, 4-1/2 and 8-1/2 games behind respectively.
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