The Vancouver Canadians got back in the win column with another come-from-behind 3-2 win over the Hillsboro Hops at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday.
Vancouver starter Dahian Santos struck out Jonathan Guzman swinging on three pitches to begin the game. The next four pitches missed the strike zone, resulting in a Channy Ortiz walk. Santos threw a wild pitch but struck out Ivan Melendez and retired J.J. D’Orazio on a grounder to third. Cade Doughty ranged toward the third base line and Lyle Lin dug out the throw at first to complete the 5-3 play.
Hops hurler Spencer Giesting got two outs with his first two pitches, including a diving catch in center by Kevin Graham to rob Alan Roden of a base hit. That was part of a 1-2-3 bottom of the first.
Hillsboro would get to Santos in the top of the second. Graham drew a one-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and after an S.P. Chen strikeout, Graham went to third on a Gavin Logan base knock to right. Julio Carrion found the gap in left-center field and it rolled to the wall in front of the manual scoreboard for a two-run double to give the Hops a 2-0 advantage. Santos struck out Jonathan Guzman for the third out.
Garrett Spain was Vancouver’s first baserunner with a four-pitch walk to begin the home portion of the second. The inning ended when Spain was picked off by Giesting.
Ortiz beat out a slow roller too short on Santos’ first pitch of the third inning and got into scoring position by stealing second. A D’Orazio base hit to left that just dropped in front of a charging Roden moved Ortiz over to third. Santos struck out Jesus Valdez and got Graham on a fly ball to left to strand the runners.
Giesting gave up a one-out base knock to right by Estiven Machado for the C’s first hit of the day before putting up another zero on the board for the bottom of the third.
The top half of the fourth began with a first-pitch out when Chen grounded out on a 3-1 play and Logan was out on a fly ball to left five pitches later. A fielding error by Alex De Jesús at short as he lost his balance on a roller by Carrion kept the inning going and that was followed by a wild pitch but Santos finished his outing by whiffing Guzman.
The C’s got two runners in scoring position three pitches into the bottom of the fourth when Andrés Sosa singled up the middle and De Jesús jumped on the next pitch for a double into the left field corner. The runners had to hold when Spain lined out to first. Guzman made a sliding catch on a sinking liner to left by Doughty but Sosa was able to tag up and slide feet first to beat the throw home for the C’s first run. D’Orazio lined out to second to give Paulino a perfect frame.
Southpaw Naswell Paulino entered the game in the top of the fifth for Vancouver and got some defensive help from Spain as he made a nice running catch just inside fair territory down the right field line. Paulino had to jump out of the way of Melendez’s broken bat on a grounder to second. Machado made a high throw but Lin was able to make a leaping catch and come down on the first bag for the second out.
Vancouver tied it when Dasan Brown led off the bottom of the fifth with a 397-foot home run to left-center, leaving the yard at 104 miles per hour. After tying the game at 2-2, the Canadians threatened to take the lead when Machado walked on a 3-2 pitch and went to third on a ground ball that clanked off the glove of the third baseman Valdez that allowed Lin to get to first. Valdez would make his next defensive play when he caught a pop-up from Roden. Sosa was hit by a pitch on the right foot to load the bases. De Jesús flew out to left but it was not deep enough to score Machado. The bases stayed full when Spain struck out swinging on three pitches.
The C’s kept the Hops at bay when Paulino struck out Chen to cap off a 1-2-3 to end the sixth and came knocking again in the home half of the frame. Martinez got on base with an infield single to third that handcuffed Valdez near the third base line and Brown lined a single to left with one out. That was it for Giesting as fellow lefty Dillon Larsen subbed in on the mound. Larsen got Machado to line out to center before getting Lin to hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice on a 3-1 pitch.
Hillsboro had something going against Paulino in the top of the seventh when Logan led off with a walk and Guzman got a one-out single to right. Ortiz was robbed of a hit when Lin dove to spear a liner at first for the second out. Lefthander Ian Churchill was summoned from the Vancouver bullpen. The former San Diego Torero had trouble finding the plate as he walked Melendez on four pitches to fill the bags and fell behind 3-1 on D’Orazio before Spain caught up to a foul ball in the Hops right field bullpen for the third out.
Larsen mowed through the top of the C’s order with a couple of strikeouts to keep the game tied after seven innings.
Churchill took care of Valdez on one pitch with a fly ball to right to open the top of the eighth. Graham then pulled off an infield single to third by just getting the ball to go off the knob of his bat. The Hops were turned away when Churchill whiffed Chen and got Logan to pop out to short.
Doughty got a base hit to left off Larsen with one away in the bottom of the eighth. A Logan passed ball and a two-out walk to Brown continued the rally but Machado grounded out to short on the first pitch he saw for the third out.
It was Hillsboro’s turn to threaten to break the tie against Matt Svanson in the top of the ninth. Guzman walked on a full-count pitch with one out and stole second base, using a swim move to avoid the De Jesús tag on the throw from Sosa. Svanson would strike out Ortiz. Melendez walked on four straight pitches to put a Hillsboro runner at every base but Svanson rebounded to strike out D’Orazio to get out of the inning.
The Hops went to another left-handed thrower for the bottom of the ninth in Carlos Meza. After falling behind 1-2 in the count, Lin singled to left field against his former team. Michael Turconi was put into the game to run for Lin and he would scampered to third when Roden lined a ball to right that Carrion could not squeeze the ball after running back toward the track for a two-base error. Sosa chopped one to the left side of the second base bag with the infield in but Chen ranged well to his right and threw out Turconi at the plate. The Hops told De Jesús to take his base so they could face the hero of Wednesday’s game in Spain. The bat of the Clarksville, Tennessee native remained stationary as Meza could only throw one strike out of five pitches, resulting in a walk-off walk to give the C’s the victory. Svanson picked up his fourth win of the year against one loss.
C-Notes
The C’s now have a two-game lead over Spokane for first place in the Northwest League with five games remaining in the first half of the season. Spokane dropped its third game in a row to Eugene while Tri-City defeated Everett to remain 2-1/2 games back. The Emeralds are now 3-1/2 games back while the AquaSox and Hops are out of the running for the first-half playoff berth at 5-1/2 and 10-1/2 games behind respectively.
Northwest League Pitcher of the Week Devereaux Harrison will huck from the hill for Vancouver in another 1:05 p.m. start at The Nat. The game will definitely be on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler ZIckel calling the action. It may even be on the local sports station if the local hockey team does not eat another $19 million dollar contract.
Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher and Vancouver Canadians colour analyst Ricky Romero will be at the ballpark on 4601 Ontario Street to sign autographs during Saturday’s game. The first 1,000 fans will get a Ricky Romero baseball card.
Congratulations to 2017 Vancouver Canadians second baseman Samad Taylor and 2019 and 2021 C’s first baseman Spencer Horwitz for their call-ups to the majors on Friday. The 24-year-old Taylor was called up by Kansas City after hitting .304 with a .409 on-base percentage at Triple-A Omaha, racking up 16 doubles, two triples, six home runs, 37 runs batted in and 34 stolen bases. The 2016 10th-round Cleveland draft pick was acquired by Toronto in a trade for reliever Joe Smith at the 2017 trade deadline. The Blue Jays sent the Corona, California native at the 2022 deadline to the Royals for Whit Merrifleld.
Horwitz—the holder of the Northwest League hitting streak record of 28 games two years ago—slashed .300/.421/.826 with 16 doubles, two home runs and 34 RBI in 57 games. The 25-year-old from Timonium, Maryland was a 24th-round pick of Toronto in 2019 out of Radford. Horwitz will wear number 48 for Toronto.
Radar Gun Rundown
Santos struck out batters at 84, 82. 94, 83, 84 and 83 miles per hour and was up to 96. Paulino punched out a couple of Hops at 82 and 88 and was around 78-92. Churchill checked in at 80-95 with a strikeout at 82. Svanson was at 81 at the low end and struck out batters at 96 and 95.
C-Tweets
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