The Vancouver Canadians blanked the Hillsboro Hops 2-0 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday.
The first inning saw Vancouver starter Devereaux Harrison and Hillsboro lefty Yu-Min Lin trade perfect frames wit Harrison striking out Ivan Melendez to end the first.
Former Blue Jays farmhand J.J. D’Orazio had the first hit of the game as he singled to left field over a leaping Josh Kasevich at short to begin the top of the second inning. Harrison struck out Jesus Valdez and walked Kevin Graham to put two runners on but managed to strand them by retiring Garry Mattis Jr. on a fly ball to left and Julio Carrion on a pop-up to short.
Devonte Brown was Vancouver’s first baserunner when he drew a walk in the home half of the second but Kasevich rapped into a 4-6-3 double play to effectively spoil that rally.
S.P. Chen got Hillsboro’s second hit with a single up the middle to start the third but Harrison got Jonathan Guzman to fly out to center before getting a double play ball of his own with a 6-4-3 twin-killing from Channy Ortiz to put up a zero.
Yu-Min Lin would induce another double play when he got Lyle Lin to hit into a 6-4-3 DP in the battle of the Lins. That took care of an Estiven Machado base hit down the left field line and effectively doused that rally.
In the top of the fourth, Harrison whiffed Melendez among the first two outs before Valdez beat out an infield single to third despite the best efforts of Alex De Jesús who made the backhand stab that took him to the third base line but his one-hop throw was not in time. Jommer Hernández threw out Valdez on a steal attempt of second as Kasevich laid the tag on a 2-6 play to end the inning.
The Canadians finally broke through against Yu-Min Lin in the fourth. Dasan Brown drew a leadoff walk, stole second base and scored on a Michael Turconi double that bounced off the warning track in left-center. Devonte Brown gave one a ride to left field but his bid for a two-run homer went foul and Turconi would be eventually stranded at second.
A four-pitch walk to Graham was how Harrison started the fifth inning and the former Long Beach State hurler seemed perturbed by the ball four call. C’s manager Brent Lavallee paid a visit Ito the mound that included the entire infield. After that, Harrison got back down to business. A Chen groundout to third got Graham over to second after Hops manager Ronnie Gajownik started the runner to avoid the double play. That was in the midst of three straight hitters retired by Harrison to keep the C’s in front 1-0.
Estiven Machado hit a hustle double to right-center with one out and stole third base when ball four was issued to Lyle Lin, who nearly hit a double that just landed foul to right earlier in the at-bat. Yu-Min Lin dialled up a third double play ball off the bat of Hernández as the play went 4-6-3 to end the inning.
The Hops got a one-out triple from Ortiz in the sixth that Dasan Brown could not hang onto after diving as he appeared to clip Martinez running toward the ball from left field. Martinez tumbled to the ground but he and Brown were okay. Harrison was able to dodge that bullet by striking out Melendez. Two pitches later, Harrison was out of the inning as he got D’Orazio on a fly ball to right.
The C’s could not build on their lead in there as Yu-Min Lin had a three-up, three-down bottom of the sixth.
The final three innings was a battle of the bullpens with Abdiel Mendoza subbing in for Harrison. He set the down the side in order after an inning-ending strikeout of Garry Mattis Jr.
Vancouver native Eil Saul was the first Hops reliever out of the pen and he lost Devonte Brown on a 3-2 pitch for a leadoff walk. Kasevich then singled to right on a 0-2 pitch to get Brown over to third. A sacrifice fly by Martinez just short of the warning track in right brought Brown home with the C’s second run.
Mendoza retired the side in order again in the eighth inning with Chen a strikeout victim. The righthander was spiked by Carrion when covering the bag on a groundout to first for the first out but he was able to stay on the mound without a visit from trainer Roelvis Vargas.
The home half of the eighth inning started on a horrific note when Hernández hit a blooper to left-center field and it resulted in a collision between Guzman and Graham. Somehow, the Center fielder Graham held onto the ball after a sliding catch before Guzman ran into him. They were shaken up but they would both stay in the game. That was the first out for Listher Sosa. The fireballing righty—who hit 98 and 100 miles per hour on the radar gun—grazed Turconi on the back of the right leg but that was the only baserunner to get on board for Vancouver.
Relievers Justin Kelly and Conor Larkin were both seen stretching in the C’s left-field bullpen with Larkin throwing the occasional warmup toss but manager Brent Lavallee elected to stay with Mendoza. The first three pitches missed the strike zone but Mendoza battled back against Ortiz to run the count full before getting a fly ball out to left for the first out. Hillsboro would get the potential tying run to the plate when Melendez doubled off the wall in right-center. Mendoza struck out D’Orazio for the second out and after falling behind 3-0 in the count, Mendoza got Valdez to ground out to short on a full-count pitch to pick up his first save of the year. That helped Harrison run his record to 3-0.
C-Notes
In front of a packed house of 6,413 fans, Vancouver garnered its 35th win against 26 losses to maintain their lead for first place in the Northwest League standings. Spokane lost to Eugene again on Saturday and Everett knocked off Tri-City to put the C’s three games up on Spokane and 3-1/2 games ahead of Eugene and Tri-City.
Saturday’s win gives Vancouver a record of 18-8 during day games with 140 runs scored, just over five runs a game.
Estiven Machado has a seven-game hitting streak after two hits on Saturday. The 20 year-old Venezuelan is 9-for-26, giving him a batting average of .346 over that stretch.
The Canadians and Hops will play their series finale on Sunday. A starter has yet to be announced for Monty’s Mounties. Sunday’s game is a sellout. Tyler ZIckel wlll have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV at 1:05 p.m.
Lefthander Braden Scott has been activated from the injured list. He had to leave a game due to injury after two-thirds of a scoreless inning against Eugene on June 2.
2017 C’s second baseman Samad Taylor made his MLB debut one to remember. He delivered a walk-off single for the Kansas City Royals in their 10-9 come-from-behind win over the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday. Seeing him getting hoisted on his teammates shoulders reminded me of this moment following the 2017 Northwest League championship won by Vancouver.
Radar Gun Rundown
Harrison was in the 82-97 miles per hour range and had strikeouts at 85, 92, 85 and 85. Mendoza was around 79-94 and struck out batters at 80, 80 and 93.
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