The Vancouver Canadians swamped the Spokane Indians 11-3 at Avista Stadium on Tuesday.
Garrett Spain was the first baserunner of the game when he drew a one-out walk in the top of the first. He was thrown out trying to steal second by Ronaiker Palma. The tag was applied by rehabbing Rockies second baseman Brendan Rogers. That helped Spokane starter Blake Adams face the minimum three batters.
Abdiel Mendoza got the start for Vancouver and his first pitch of the game was grounded up the middle for a base hit by Benny Montgomery. The next pitch saw Mendoza induce Rogers to hit one back to the hill and that was the start of a 1-4-3 double play. A strikeout of Sterlin Thompson ended the three-batter first.
The first Vancouver hit belonged to Gabby Martinez as he singled to center to start the top of the second but that was the only time Adams allowed a ball to be put into play. The bottom of the frame saw Mendoza give up an infield single to the mound by Nic Kent. Kent moved into scoring position after Mendoza hit him in the batting helmet with an errant pickoff throw. The Spokane shortstop would not go any further.
The newest member of the Canadians made a good first impression with the bat by jumpstarting the offence in the top of the third. Ryan McCarty doubled to center to lead things off and he would score on a one-out Dasan Brown triple to the middle outfield. Spain scored Brown with the C’s second run with a double to right before coming home on a two-out base hit to right by Martinez. Josh Kasevich kept the rally going with a double to left and he and Martinez would come home when Devonte Brown also doubled to left to make it 5-0 Vancouver.
The next baserunner of the game would be Rogers when he drew a leadoff walk against Mendoza in the bottom of the fourth. Zach Kokoska had an infield single to second with two outs and Kent was hit by a pitch to load the bases but Mendoza struck out Juan Guerrero to escape that jam.
Vancouver got back on the board in the top of the fifth when Michael Turconi worked a one-out walk and made it home on a Kasevich two-out double to center to put the visitors up by six. That was the end of the night for Adams.
In the bottom of the fifth, Mendoza struck out A.J. Lewis for the first of two outs but Montgomery singled to center and Rodgers reached base when he was hit by a pitch. Ben Sems took over for Rodgers at first but he nor Montgomery would score as Thompson flew out to left field.
Ryan Boyer relieved Mendoza in the sixth and alternated strikeouts and hits to the first four batters he faced. He struck out Ryan Ritter looking and Kent swinging but allowed an infield single to short by Kokoska and a single to center by Guerrero. Boyer threw a wild pitch to move the runners up but got Lewis by hitting the knob of his bat and starting a 1-3 putout to retire the Spokane catcher.
After retiring all four batters he faced, Tyler Ahearn gave way to rehabbing big leaguer Tyler Kinley in the top of the seventh. That did not matter to Spain as he took the five-year MLB veteran deep with a one-out home run to right field for his eighth big fly of the year to give the C’s a 7-0 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, Spokane loaded the bases with one out as Thompson’s one-out single to left followed a pair of leadoff knocks to center and right by Palma and Montgomery respectively. Boyer then walked Ritter for the home side’s first run. That was the first run Boyer allowed in 12-1/3 innings with the C’s this season. Conor Larkin took over and struck out Kokoska before getting Kent to line out to second.
Felix Ramires was up next on the mound for Spokane and he allowed three hits to left field, starting with a one-out single by Devonte Brown and a two-out knock by McCarty and they came home on a Jommer Hernández double to increase Vancouver’s advantage to eight runs. Dasan Brown also drew a walk before Ramires got out of the frame.
Spokane would match those two runs in the bottom of the eighth against Larkin. A pair of walks to Guerrero and Palma surrounded a strikeout of Lewis. A two-out single to right by Sems and a Hernández passed ball resulted in Guerrero and Palma scoring to cut Vancouver’s lead to 9-3.
Vancouver answered back with another two-run frame against Cullen Kafka in the top of the fifth. Two hits to left field on a leadoff single by Turconi and a one-out knock by Kasevich were joined by Devonte Brown on the basepaths after a walk. Kekai Rios singled up the middle to score Turconi with the C’s 10th run and McCarty produced a sacrifice fly to bring in Kasevich.
Sam Ryan came out of the Canadians arm barn for the ninth and yielded an infield single to first by Ritter but got Kokoska to hit into a 4-6-3 double play. The game ended on the next pitch when Kent flew out to center. That cemented Mendoza’s first win of the year to help him up his record to 1-2.
C-Notes
The first-place Canadians go to 52-32 on the season, including 14 wins in 19 tries in the second half. They hold a four-game lead over Everett, five over Spokane and Tri-City, six on Eugene and seven on Hillsboro in the second-half standings.
Adam Macko will be on the mound for Vancouver on Wednesday. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com beginning at 6:35 p.m. Kevin Miranda, Devereaux Harrison, Michael Dominguez and Rafael Sánchez round out the starting probable pitchers for Monty’s Mounties from Thursday to Sunday.
C-Changes
The Toronto Blue Jays promoted infielder Ryan McCarty to the C’s by way of Dunedin. The 24-year-old from Yardley, Pennsylvania joined the Jays as a free agent on July 26, 2022. He had spent five years at Penn State-Abington where he batted .437/.514/.785 for the Nittany Lions. The 5-foot-9 right-handed hitter joined the Dunedin Blue Jays in 2022 and batted .274 with a .378 on-base percentage and one home run over 18 games. McCarty returned to Dunedin to begin the 2023 campaign and collected 29 extra-base hits and 30 runs batted in over 59 games, batting .244/.338/.449 with six stolen bases. He will wear number 22 for the C’s.
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