The Vancouver Canadians upended the Hillsboro Hops 10-7 at Ron Tonkin Field on Friday.
The C’s got to Hops starter Yu-Min Lin for the first run of the game in their first at-bat despite not hitting the ball out of the infield. Dasan Brown reached base on an infield single to second with one out and scampered to second on a wild pitch. Michael Turconi got aboard with an infield knock when Lin could not handle a comebacker at the mound. A 4-6 fielder’s choice by Gabby Martinez brought in Brown from third to make it 1-0 Vancouver.
Canadians starter Rafael Sánchez only needed nine pitches to blank Hillsboro in the bottom of the first, striking out Manuel Peña to begin a 1-2-3 inning.
The C’s would add to their lead in the top of the second when Kekai Rios jumped on Lin’s first pitch for a double to right field and would come around to score on a Devonte Brown RBI single to center. Estiven Machado would get on base with a walk before Alan Roden ripped a three-run home run to right, his fourth of the year, to put the C’s up 5-0. Dasan Brown followed that with a walk but would not go any further.
Unfortunately for Sánchez, the bottom of the second did not go nearly as well as the first. Former Blue Jays farmhand J.J. D’Orazio began the frame with a home run to left to put Hillsboro on the board. Junior Franco would single to right and after Kevin Graham struck out, he would race home on a Gary Mattis Jr. triple to left. Shane Muntz put a ball into play as his groundout to short brought Mattis home to make it a 5-3 game. Sánchez would end the frame with a punchout of Brett Johnson.
Vancouver got a pair of one-out singles to center and left by Rios and Devonte Brown in the top of the third but Lin put up his first zero of the night by getting Machado to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
Hillsboro was able to draw even in the bottom of the third. Peña got aboard with a leadoff walk and S.P. Chen followed that up with a single to left. Sánchez struck out Day and D’Orazio but Franco hit a triple to center to score Peña and Chen to tie the game at 5-5.
Lin retired the C’s in order in the top of the fourth and the Hops would grab their first lead of the night in the bottom of the frame. One-out singles to right and left by Muntz and Johnson were cashed in by a double to center from Peña to put Hillsboro in front 7-5. Sánchez issued a free pass to Chen and that was the end of his night. Sam Ryan would strand Chen by getting the next two batters to keep the C’s to within two.
The Canadians got back into the game against Lin in the top of the fifth with a two-out rally. Walks by Spain and Rios forced Lin’s exit from the game and they would score when Devonte Brown doubled to center off Hops reliever Will Mabrey to even things up at 7-7.
The game remained tied after five as Ryan struck out Franco and Graham to set down the Hops in order. It also stayed 7-7 after six with Mabrey working a 1-2-3 frame and Ryan overcoming a leadoff walk to Muntz.
Zach Barnes entered the game for Hillsboro out of the bullpen and he walked Turconi before wild-pitching him over to second. Garrett Spain smacked a one-out single to right to bring in Turconi with the go-ahead run. Devonte Brown added some insurance with a two-out, two-run homer to left-center for his sixth dinger of 2023 to put the C’s up by three, capping off a 4-for-4 night with five runs batted in. Ryan was able to maintain the lead by putting up another perfect inning in the bottom of the seventh.
Billy Corcoran worked the next two innings for the Hops and yielded just a two-out infield single to third by Roden in the eighth. Matt Svanson had a perfect bottom of the eighth which he punctuated with a strikeout of Muntz. The bottom of the ninth was a different story for Svanson when Johnson led off with a walk. After striking out Peña looking, Chen and D’Orazio followed suit with one-out and two-out walks respectively to load the bases. Justin Kelly replaced Svanson and retired Franco on a fly ball to left for his second save of the year. That helped Ryan pick up his first W of 2023.
C-Notes
Vancouver maintains its one-game lead over Everett in the second-half standings with a 9-4 record and is now three games up on Eugene and Spokane. Hillsboro and Tri-City are four games off the pace. The C’s overall record stands at 47-31 as they have clinched the Northwest League’s first-half pennant.
It will be Dahian Santos‘ turn in the Vancouver rotation on Saturday as the C’s look for a series victory against Hillsboro. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV beginning at 7:05 p.m. Devereaux Harrison is scheduled to start in Sunday’s finale.
In a welcome development for the Toronto Blue Jays, 2019 C’s righthander Alex Manoah‘s return to the bigs was a triumphant one. He checked the Detroit Tigers on one run on five hits and struck out eight over six innings as the Jays pounded the Motown squad 12-2 at Comerica Park.
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