The Vancouver Canadians knocked off the Hillsboro Hops 8-2 at Ron Tonkin Field on Tuesday.
Alan Roden tried to make something happen when he blooped a single C’s Recap – De Jesús Hits for De Cycle, Hernández Homers as Canadians Trounce Hopsto right field off Hillsboro starter Joe Elbis to open the game. However, the former Creighton Bluejay was cut down trying to go for a double when second baseman Manuel Peña got to the ball in shallow right field and threw the ball to shortstop Josh Day for the tag. The C’s kept pressing ahead when Dasan Brown delivered a triple to the left-center field gap and he would score on an Alex De Jesús ground-rule double to left center to put the C’s up 1-0.
Hillsboro got its first hit when Day singled up the middle with two outs in the home half of the first but Vancouver starter Michael Dominguez struck out Wildred Patino, Peña and Ivan Melendez.
Dominguez walked Junior Franco in the bottom of the second but Jommer Hernández nailed Franco at second for a 2-4 caught stealing. Shane Muntz was called out after a 6-3 play but replays on MiLB.TV showed the Hops first baseman beat the throw from De Jesús at short. However, base umpire Cas Cousins thought otherwise. Dominguez went on to strike out Gavin Logan to keep the C’s in the lead.
After coming up with a big play behind the plate, Hernández followed suit at the plate in the top of the third by launching the first pitch he saw from Elbis over the left field fence to put Vancouver up by two. Roden was then hit in the left arm by a pitch and would be forced out when Michael Turconi hit into a 4-6 fielder’s choice with one away. That brought De Jesús to the plate and he drilled one deep to center field for a two-run home run to put the C’s up 4-0.
The Hops got another leadoff walk in the third from Brett Johnson and he advanced to third on a Channy Ortiz single to right. Dominguez struck out Patino but yielded a sacrifice fly to left by Peña to bring in Johnson with the Hops first run.
The fourth inning saw Dominguez strike out Melendez swinging and Franco looking for the first two outs but plunked Muntz in the left shoulder. Muntz was upset and started walking towards the hill before Hernández stepped in front of him. Cooler heads did prevail and Dominguez got Logan to ground out to short.
The odd-numbered inning magic would continue for Vancouver in the top of the fifth. Roden drew a one-out walk and Dasan Brown was plunked by a pitch in the left arm. De Jesús then delivered a two-run double to center field to score Roden and Brown to give Vancouver a 6-1 advantage. Cade Doughty would draw a walk before the inning came to a close.
Johnson picked up his second leadoff walk of the game when Dominguez issued him a free pass in the bottom of the fifth. Hernández would throw out Johnson for a 2-6 caught stealing at second base. Ortiz drew a walk and got to second on a Patino grounder to short before Dominguez ended his outing with his eighth strikeout of the game by sitting down Peña.
Eric Pardinho relieved Dominguez and worked around a two-out double to Franco and a wild pitch to get out of the top of the sixth, striking out Melendez for his first K.
After being retired 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth, the C’s would get to Hops lefty Dillon Larsen in his second inning of work. Roden got a leadoff walk and Turconi heard ball four one out later. A wild pitch moved both runners up and they would score when De Jesús smashed a grounder that Day could not handle at short for a two-run single to left field. That gave De Jesús the single he needed to complete the cycle. A Garrett Spain two-out walk forced Hops manager Ronnie Gajownik to go to the bullpen for Zach Barnes to get the final out of the frame.
Pardinho walked Logan to start the bottom of the seventh but he struck out Johnson before getting Ortiz to ground into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
After going down in order in innings two, four and six, the C’s tried to add on to their lead in the eighth against Barnes. Estiven Machado singled to right, Hernández walked and Roden reached on an infield single to second after Barnes could not handle a comebacker to the mound. Barnes recovered by getting Dasan Brown to hit into a 1-2-3 double play before striking out Turconi.
Sam Ryan hit Patino in the right hand to begin the bottom of the eighth but got Peña to hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to erase Patino before inducing a 6-4-3 double play from Day who appeared to beat the relay to first on replays by MiLB.TV. Day argued the play with base umpire Cousins and was thrown out of the game.
Vancouver tried to conjure up some more odd-number inning magic when Doughty reached first on an error by Melendez at third. Melendez muffed a pop fly but he recovered by throwing the ball to Peña and he tagged out Doughty at second. That helped Barnes face the minimum three batters.
Conor Larkin came out of the Vancouver bullpen in the ninth and got into a bases-loaded jam when Melendez reached on an infield single to third, Franco hit a ground-rule double to left and Logan walked with one out. Larkin then walked Johnson to bring in Melendez for Hillsboro’s second run. After striking out Muntz for the first out, Larkin collected his second whiff by striking out Patino on three pitches to end the game. Dominguez got the win to up his record to 5-2.
C-Notes
The Toronto Blue Jays released lefthander Braden Scott on Sunday. The former Indiana Hoosier signed with Toronto as a free agent on February 2, 2022. He pitched for Dunedin and New Hampshire for most of 2022 and made his C’s debut with a perfect inning by striking out the side against the Eugene Emeralds at The Nat. The Bloomington, Indiana native finished out the year with the Fisher Cats.
Scott returned to the C’s this season in mid-May after starting the year on the Development List. The year began on a good note with a two scoreless outings at Tri-City, including four whiffs in two frames against the Dust Devils on May 19. Scott was roughed up in two outings at Spokane that skewed his numbers. He had to leave a game against Eugene at the Nat due to an injury on June 2. Scott was placed on the seven-day injured list on June 10 and returned to action on June 20 where he tossed a shutout inning by striking out the side at Eugene. He put up another scoreless frame against Spokane on June 27 and was the winning pitcher when the C’s rallied for a walk-off win against Spokane on June 30. That was the 25-year-old’s last appearance with the club. All the best to Braden in his future endeavours.
The C’s will give the ball to Kevin Miranda for the second game of this six-game set. Tyler Zickel will have the broadcast on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game can also be seen on MiLB.TV beginning at 7:05 p.m.
Adam Macko and Rafael Sanchez will get the starting assignments on Thursday and Friday for Vancouver.
Vancouver has a 7-3 record in the second half and is 45-30 overall. Everett is one game back of the C’s for top spot in the second half and Spokane and Eugene are two games off the pace.
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