The Vancouver Canadians lost to the Everett AquaSox 3-1 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Sunday.
Rafael Sánchez got the start for the C’s and walked Cole Young after getting ahead of the count 0-2. Harry Ford got ahead in the count 3-1 before he flew out to center field for the first out. Sánchez struck out Hogan Windish and Andrew Miller to overcome a two-out single to center by Ben Ramirez in between to hold off the Frogs.
Raúl Alcantara made his second start of the series for Everett and walked Devonte Brown and Dasan Brown but then rebounded to strike out the side.
Mike Salvatore, wearing number 27, singled to left on the first pitch from Sánchez in the top of the second. Erik Stock reached base on a fielder’s choice to short and went to second on a Randy Bednar base knock to left. Sánchez would get two fly ball outs from Blake Rambusch and Young to right and center respectively for outs two and three.
Garrett Spain was sawed off on a comebacker to the mound to begin the bottom of the second. Ryan McCarty got aboard by taking one for the team and Estiven Machado got the first hit against Alcantara in the series with a single to left. A wild pitch and a walk to Lyle Lin would load the bases but the C’s were turned away when Devonte Brown struck out and Dasan Brown hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
Everett got another leadoff man aboard when Ford singled to center. Windish flew out to deep right for the first out. Another deep fly ball to the warning track in right-center was snared by Devonte Brown for the second out. Sánchez then fanned Miller to end the inning
Michael Turconi blooped a single to left off Alcantara to lead off the bottom of the third. Martinez singled up the middle with one out but Spain rapped into a 6-3 inning-ending double play.
Sánchez got the first two outs of the top of the fourth but Bednar launched one to left field for a solo home run to put the Frogs on the board first.
After Alcantara took care of the C’s in order in the bottom of the fourth, the AquaSox got another leadoff man on base when Young doubled to left just past a diving Devonte Brown in left-center. Ford got to third on a wild pitch before a walk to Windish. Ramirez then singled off the glove of Turconi at second into right field to score Ford. That was it for Sanchez as Anders Tolhurst was brought out of the bullpen. He struck out Miller but gave up a Salvatore single to left to bring home Windish for the third Everett run. Tolhurst ended the frame by getting Stock looking at strike three.
The C’s finally scored against Alcantara when Devonte Brown banged a double off the right wall to start the bottom of the fifth. A Dasan Brown fly ball to right and a Turconi grounder to second moved Devonte Brown the remaining 180 feet to get Vancouver on the board.
Tolhurst was back out for the top of the sixth and had a 1-2-3 frame which he ended by getting Young looking at strike three. Everett‘s first reliever out of the pen was Kyle Hill and he walked McCarty with two outs but that was all he gave up.
Conor Larkin struck out Windish and Ramirez to finish off a perfect top of the seventh for Vancouver. Sam Carlson worked the bottom of the frame for the Frogs and Young helped him out by ranging to his left from short to rob Devonte Brown of a base hit to center for the second out of a 1-2-3 frame.
Larkin whiffed Miller for the first out of the top of the eighth before walking Salvatore but the Frogs would not make any more contact in fair territory as Stock and Bednar went down on strikes.
Jarrod Bayless was next out of the AquaSox arm barn and walked Cade Doughty with one out. Young then robbed Martinez of a base hit by gliding over toward second to start a slick 6-4-3 rally-killing double play.
Sam Ryan was assigned the top of the ninth for Vancouver and walked Young with one away but that was his only misstep. Logan Rinehart closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth to finalize the win for the Rrogs.
C-Notes
Vancouver remains one win shy of the 60-win mark as its record now stands at 59-36. Its second-half mark goes to 21-9. Everett is five games back of Vancouver for first place in the second half and Eugene is six games behind.
The Canadians will begin the month of August on the road as they travel to Hillsboro for a six-game series at Ron Tonkin Field. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play beginning Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game is also available on MiLB.TV.
The team’s next home series is on Tuesday, August 8 when the Tri-City Dust Devils come to town. Former Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons will be in the house to sign autographs with the first 1,000 fans getting a John Gibbons baseball card.
A pair of former Vancouver Canadians hurlers were dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday. Adam Kloffenstein (2019, 2021, 2022) and Sem Robberse (2021-2022) are now in the Redbirds organization after the Jays acquired righthanded reliever Jordan Hicks.
Kloffenstein was 5–5 with a 3.24 earned run average with Double-A New Hampshire in a bounce back 2023 campaign for the Blue Jays third round pick of 2018 from Magnolia High School in Texas. He struck out 108 batters and walked 34 in 89 innings with the Fisher Cats. King Kloff had an outstanding 2019 campaign with the C’s that saw him earn Northwest League All-Star and Baseball America Short-Season All-Star plaudits. The 22-year-old righthander won 18 games and logged 390 innings with 418 Ks during his five seasons in the Toronto organization.
Robberse was signed as a free agent in 2019 out of Zeist, Netherlands. He was also with Double-A New Hampshire this season with Kloffenstein and was 3-5 with a 4.06 ERA in 88-2/3 innings with 86 Ks and 33 BBs. He was a Future Games Selection during the recent All-Star Game festivities in Seattle earlier this month. The 21-year-old recorded 14 wins with a 3.73 ERA over his four seasons in the Blue Jays system and recorded 282 strikeouts in 299 innings.
All the best to Sem and Adam in the Cardinals organization. This trade is sure to lead to a ripple effect with two starters in the C’s rotation more than likely having been told to pack their bags for a promotion to Manchester, New Hampshire.
Radar Gun Rundown
Sanchez had strikeouts at 80 and 84 and up to 95. Tolhurst had whiffs of 93, 94 and 93. Larkin had strikeouts of 94, 85, 93, 84 and 94 and was around 81-95. Ryan was at 83-94.
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