The Vancouver Canadians upended the Spokane Indians 7-3 at Avista Stadium on Thursday.
Spokane threatened early against C’s starter Devereaux Harrison as it loaded the bases over the course of six pitches. Benny Montgomery singled to right field on Harrison’s first pitch before Brendan Rodgers popped up to second base on the second pitch. Sterlin Thompson singled to left two pitches later before Zach Kokoska was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The bags would remain filled when Nic Kent struck out and Juan Guerrero lined out to right.
Jaden Hill set down the first five Vancouver hitters he faced but Ryan McCarty doubled to right and Lyle Lin drew a walk. Kekai Rios was then credited with a home run to center field to help the C’s draw first blood. The umpiring crew of Kenny Jackson and Josiah Shepherd had a discussion as the ball apparently came back onto the field but Rios’ blast was ruled a dinger. Estiven Machado singled to center and made it to second on a wild pitch but that was all for the C’s offence in the top of the second.
The Canadians had a one-out walk by Michael Turconi and a two-out free pass by Devonte Brown in the top of the third but that was all Hill would allow. After a 1-2-3 second inning that included a called strikeout of A.J. Lewis, Harrison put up another zero in the third. He struck out Montgomery to open the frame and saw his batterymate Rios erase a two-out single to right by throwing out Thompson to wrap up the inning.
Vancouver went down quietly in the fourth inning with Anderson Bido relieving Hill to get the final out. Spokane tried to spark a two-out rally against Harrison in the bottom of the frame when Guerrero walked and Ben Sems singled to center but Lewis grounded into a fielder’s choice at second for the third out.
The C’s had a pair of one-out singles to right by Garrett Spain and Turconi in the top of the fifth but they would be left on by Bido. In the bottom half, Rodgers had a two-out knock to center before Harrison hung another goose egg on the board.
Lyle Lin had a base hit to left with one out in the top half of the sixth against Evan Shawver but he would not go any further. The home side broke the shutout against Eric Pardinho in the bottom half as Kokoska led off with a double to left. Fly ball outs to center and left by Kent and Guerrero brought Kokoska around to score.
Shawver set down the Canadians in order in the seventh and Naswell Paulino did the same to Spokane as the lefty struck out Robby Martin Jr. and Montgomery to finish the frame.
Monty’s Mounties would expand their lead against Tyler Ahearn in the eighth by greeting him with three straight hits. A double to right by Gabby Martinez was driven home by a McCarty double to left to make it 4-1 C’s. Devonte Brown had singled before McCarty’s RBI double and he would eventually score on a wild pitch. A two-out ground ball by Machado ate up Sems at first base and that error allowed McCarty to come home. Dasan Brown‘s infield single to second got Machado into scoring position and Machado would score on a Spain single to left to make it 7-1 Vancouver.
Anders Tolhurst was on the mound for Vancouver in the bottom of the eighth and ran into trouble by plunking Braiden Ward with a pitch and Thompson got Ward over to third with a double to right. A sacrifice fly to center by Kokoska led to not only Ward scoring but Thompson due to a Dasan Brown throwing error. Tolhurst did get out of the inning but the second run allowed would be earned as well as Kent got a base hit up the middle.
Felix Ramires retired the side in order for Spokane in the top of the ninth and Tolhurst matched that by striking out Lewis looking and Martin swinging before Montgomery grounded out to third to finish the game. Harrison improved to 4-2 on the season and gained a measure of revenge on Spokane after handing him a loss at Nat Bailey Stadium back on July 2.
C-Notes
Vancouver is back to 20 games above the .500 mark with a record of 53 wins and 33 losses. The C’s second-half record of 15-6 puts them three games in front of Everett and five ahead of Spokane. Eugene and Tri-City are six games back and Hillsboro is seven back.
Kevin Miranda will take his turn on the hill for Vancouver in a 7:05 p.m. start at Avista Stadium. Tyler Zickel will broadcast the game on CanadiansBaseball.com.
The transactions page at CanadiansBaseball.com says first baseman Peyton Williams is on a rehabilitation assignment with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays. The former Iowa Hawkeye has been out since June 10 when he injured himself diving for a ground ball but was able to complete the play by tagging the first base bag with the glove. That helped preserve the team’s seven-inning no-hitter by Devereaux Harrison and Matt Svanson to complete a doubleheader sweep in Everett.
2022 Canadians lefty Ricky Tiedemann is also rehabbing in the FCL and pitched two shutout frames with three strikeouts on Friday against the FCL Phillies.
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