The Vancouver Canadians crushed the Hillsboro Hops 9-1 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday.
The game was delayed by 26 minutes thanks to a burst of heavy rain passing through the area. Michael Dominguez got a first-pitch out by retiring Channy Ortiz on a fly ball to center field. He walked Jonathan Guzman on four pitches but avoided further trouble by getting Ivan Melendez to tap back to the mound and J.J. D’Orazio to fly out to center.
Hillsboro starter Evan Short also recorded an out on his first pitch as Alan Roden lined out to right field on the way to a 1-2-3 first inning.
Dominguez had his first three-up, three-down frame in the second by striking out Garry Mattis Jr. and inducing another comebacker from Kevin Graham.
Alex De Jesús put the C’s on the board by launching a rocket off the facing of the left field porch at 362 feet with one out for the game’s first run.
Oyen, Alberta’s Gavin Logan smoked a ball off the top of the center field wall to open the top of the third for the Hops but Dominguez struck out S.P. Chen and Guzman to get out of that jam.
The C’s looked to add to their lead in the third when Dasan Brown singled to center past a diving Ortiz at short and stole second. Devonte Brown drew a walk but he was forced out on a 4-6 fielder’s choice from Roden. Andrés Sosa then popped out to second with runners on the corners. Roden swiped second base to move into scoring position but the game was delayed when Logan blocked a pitch in the dirt that hit him in the one spot he did not want. Shane Muntz replaced Logan behind the dish and the inning ended one pitch later when Michael Turconi grounded out to short.
Vancouver went back on offence after Dominguez struck out the side in the top of the fourth by sitting down Melendez, Ortiz and Mattis. Cade Doughty led off with an infield single to short and scampered all the way home from first when De Jesús banged the center field wall with a double on a 3-2 pitch. Doughty made an evasive headfirst slide to avoid the tag from Muntz for Vancouver’s second run. Gabby Martinez blooped a single to center but De Jesús had to hold his ground at second. Both of them would trot home on the first professional home run from Josh Kasevich, a 395-foot shot off the lower part of the video board to boost Vancouver’s lead to 5-0. Devonte Brown and Roden drew back-to-back one-out walks to chase Short from the game and executed a double steal with two outs with Carlos Meza on the mound. A walk to Turconi loaded the bases before Doughty struck out to end the rally.
The Hops went down in order in the top of the fifth as Dominguez struck out Jesus Valdez looking and Muntz swinging.
The C’s added to their lead when De Jesús connected for another no-doubter off Meza to begin the fifth. That one rolled off the roof of the left field porch at 103 miles per hour and went 420 feet to make it 6-0 C’s. Meza appeared to have limited the damage when he tried to strike out Dasan Brown looking but the 0-2 pitch was ruled a ball by home plate umpire Shin Koishizawa. Meza and some of the Hops infielders were making a move toward the first base dugout but had to retreat to their positions. Devonte Brown singled to center to push Dasan Brown over to third. Hops pitching coach Gabby Hernändez came out to visit the mound and was tossed by Koishizawa after the conference broke up. Roden then pulled a single to right past a diving Melendez at first to plate Devonte Brown for run number seven. Roden stole second and Sosa walked to load the bases to send Meza to the showers. Dillon Larsen—the third Hillsboro southpaw on the night—left the bags full by striking out Turconi on three straight pitches.
The top of the sixth saw Hillsboro get their first run. Ortiz walked with one out but was thrown out by Sosa trying to steal second. Guzman walked on a full-count pitch and advanced to second on a passed ball. Dominguez got Melendez to hit a grounder to short but Kasevich put too much mustard on the throw as the ball wound up in the Hillsboro dugout, allowing Guzman to come home. Lefty Cooper Benson relieved Dominguez and got D’Orazio to line out to short for the third out.
Vancouver would get to Larsen for a run in the half of the sixth. Doughty singled to left and went to second on a wild pitch. De Jesús walked but was forced out on a Kasevich 4-6 fielder’s choice with two outs. Kasevich would swipe second and Dasan Brown would drive in Doughty with a base hit to right but Brown was thrown out going for a double on a 9-2-6 play for the third out.
Benson worked a clean seventh that included a nice sliding catch by Sosa behind the plate to retire Mattis and a whiff of Graham.
The bottom of the seventh began with a Devonte Brown walk. Larsen would retire the next two hitters that included a strikeout of Sosa but a wild pitch advanced Brown to second. Two more wild pitches resulted in Brown coming home and Turconi getting a base on balls on the second wayward offering. Doughty singled over the head of a leaping Chen to center field and De Jesús walked to fill the pillows but Martinez popped out too short.
In the top of the eighth, Benson worked around a Muntz walk by whiffing the side as Chen, Ortiz and Guzman made a U-turn at home plate.
Gunnar Groen walked Kasevich in the bottom of the eighth and Roden had a two-out opposite-field single to left but the C’s were kept off the board.
Lefthander Ian Churchill made his Canadians debut in the ninth, striking out Melendez to begin a 1-2-3 frame to finish the game. Dominguez picked up his third win of the year to improve to 3-2.
C-Notes
Vancouver remains tied with Spokane at 32-25 for first place in the Northwest League, 1-1/2 games ahead of Tri-City with eight games left in the first half of the season.
The Canadians send Adam Macko to the mound in the second game of this series against the Hops. The first pitch is at 7:05 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel on the call.
Radar Gun Rundown
Dominguez had strikeouts of 85, 92, 92 and 84 miles per hour and was around 78-93.
Benson’s whiffs were at 90, 92, 90 and 85 and checked in at 78. Churchill had a punchout at 85 and was up to 95.
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