The Vancouver Canadians dumped the Everett AquaSox 6-4 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Thursday.
Everett had two runners on against C’s starter Devereaux Harrison with one out. After Dasan Brown used his speed to catch up to a shallow fly in center to retire Cole Young. Harry Ford was then hit in the shoulder and Hogan Windish drew a walk. Ben Ramirez hit into a 3-6 fielder’s choice and Axel Sánchez popped out to Kekai Rios behind the plate for the third out.
Dasan Brown was plunked with a Brandon Schaeffer pitch in the shoulder to begin the home half of the first but that was all the C’s could manage against the Everett lefty.
The AquaSox would open the scoring in the top of the second. Andrew Miller doubled to the left field corner with one out and moved to third on a Colin Davis ground ball to second. Blake Rambusch beat out an infield roller despite the best efforts of a hard-charging Ryan McCarty from third. Harrison made an errant pickoff throw to first that put Rambusch at second and he would score when Young drilled a double off the center field wall. Harrison ended the inning by striking out Ford.
The C’s put together a two-out rally thanks to newcomer Jeff Wehler. The designated hitter singled to center in his first Northwest League at-bat and stole second base. Rios reached base on a fielding error at third by Ramirez to get Wehler 90 feet off real estate. Estiven Machado then flared a double to left to score Wehler with the C’s first run. Dasan Brown would ground out to second to leave two men on.
A leadoff walk by Windish in the top of the third did not lead to any more offence from Everett as Harrison struck out Sánchez in the midst of three straight outs.
Devonte Brown was robbed of a hit when Davis made a leaping grab in right field to open the home half of the third. Gabby Martinez and Josh Kasevich heard ball four with two away but Schaeffer got McCarty to fly out to center.
Harrison fanned Miller to start the top of the fourth before a one-out knock to left by Davis. A fly out to left by Rambusch and a groundout to first by Young ended the Everett threat.
Wehler ignited another rally in the bottom of the fourth frame with a double to the left field fence. Rios gave one a ride to right field but Davis hauled it in before the warning track. That moved Wehler to third and he would come home on a Machado grounder to short to tie the game at 2-2. The inning ended when Dasan Brown was barely thrown out at first by Ramirez on a ground ball to third.
Ford singled to right to start the top of the fifth but Harrison induced a sharply-turned double play as the trio of Kasevich, Machado and Turconi completed the 6-4-3 twin-killing. Dasan Brown then ran one down towards the left-center field gap to retire Ramirez for the third out.
The C’s would surge ahead in the bottom of the fifth. Devonte Brown ripped the first pitch from Schaeffer into the left field corner for a double. Martinez blooped a single to center to put runners on the corner before Kasevich cleared the left field fence out of the reach of Mike Salvatore—wearing number 1 in this one—into the C’s bullpen to make it 5-2 Vancouver. That was Kasevich’s second home run in as many nights and his third on the year. McCarty was hit by a pitch to lead to Schaeffer’s exit from the game. With Jimmy Kingsbury on the mound, McCarty was thrown out trying to steal second for the third out.
The AquaSox got another leadoff man aboard in the top half of the sixth when Sánchez singled to right and made it to second by tagging up on a fly ball out to left by Salvatore. Miller drew a walk and Sánchez was able to get to third by barely beating Rios’ throw after the ball bounced away in front of the C’s catcher. A wild pitch put Miller at second before Davis lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Sánchez. Rambusch would ground out to short to end the rally.
Machado had a one-out walk in the sixth but Kingsbury got out of the inning when Dasan Brown was called for batter’s interference when Machado tried to swipe second.
Eric Pardinho took over for Harrison in the top of the seventh and got help from his third baseman to get the first out of the frame. McCarty ran to the wall in foul territory and reached into the first row of seats to take care of Young. Ford heard ball four before Pardinho struck out Windish and Ramirez to wrap up the inning.
Luis Curvelo was called in to pitch the bottom of the seventh for the Frogs. He surrendered a one-out Turconi double to the right field corner before Kasevich’s seeing-eye single up the middle scored Turconi to restore the C’s three-run lead. McCarty singled to center to get Kasevich over to third before advancing to second on a bang-bang play at the bag. Bernie Martinez relieved Curvelo and walked Wehler to load the bases but Rios hit into a 5-4 fielder’s choice to end that uprising.
Anders Tolhurst came on in relief for Vancouver and got the first two batters he faced, including a strikeout of Salvatore. Miller banged a double off the base of the wall in center before Tolhurst got Davis on a fly ball to center.
Devonte Brown nearly left the yard as the ball struck the short left field fence but he was able to make it to second for a hustle double with a headfirst slide. That was the only Bernie Martinez allowed in the inning.
Justin Kelly was called in to complete the top of the ninth for Vancouver. He fanned Rambusch and Young before Ford homered to deep left to pull Everett to within a pair. Kelly struck out the side by sitting down Windish to put another one in the win column for Monty’s Mounties. Kelly’s fourth save ensured Harrison’s fifth win of 2023.
C-Notes
The Canadians won their 20th game of the second half out of 27 tries. Eugene has now pulled into a tie with Everett for second place in the second-half standings with its fifth win in a row to move over the .500 mark at 14-13. Vancouver’s overall record is now 58-34.
The fourth game of this six-game set is set for Friday afternoon. Kevin Miranda is scheduled to fire the first pitch at 1:05 p.m. for Vancouver. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Michael Dominguez and Rafael Sánchez are listed as the probable starters for Saturday and Sunday.
2015 Canadians lefthander Danny Young was released by Atlanta on July 19 but signed a minor league deal with the Georgia club two days later. Also, 2017 righthander Graham Spraker was released by the Tampa Bay Rays on July 8. He tossed just eight innings with the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits but had not pitched since May due to injury. 2011 hurler Noah Syndergaard was traded to the Cleveland Guardians by the Los Angeles Dodgers but is currently on the injured list due to a blister issue.
Radar Gun Rundown
Harrison was around 80-94 miles per hour with strikeouts of 85 and 83. Pardinho had whiffs at 84 and 85 and was up to 92. Tolhurst had a whiff at 84 and also hit 94. Kelly had Ks of 83, 83 and 84 and was up to 94.
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