The Vancouver Canadians got by the Hillsboro Hops 6-5 in 10 innings at Ron Tonkin Field on Thursday.
José Cabrera toed the rubbed for Hillsboro and retired the first two men he faced before walking Michael Turconi to extend his on-base streak to 30 games. Cade Doughty singled to center field to get Turconi to second and Gabby Martinez got a single to left to score Turconi with the game’s first run.
Devereaux Harrison was on the hill for Vancouver and walked the first man he faced in Wilderd Patiño and he would steal second base. After striking out Kevin Graham for the first of two consecutive outs, Harrison walked Shane Muntz but got David Martin to line out to third for a scoreless bottom of the first.
Cabrera handed out his second walk of the game to Kekai Rios with one out in the top of the second and that led to more trouble for the Hops righthander. He had an Estiven Machado comebacker go off his rear end and the ball took a funny bounce on the artificial turf between shortstop Tommy Troy and second baseman Juan Corniel. Corniel tried to barehand the ball to start a double play but he could not grab it. That allowed Rios was able to make it safely into second and Machado was credited with an infield hit. Garrett Spain then doubled to right-center to score Rios and Machado to make it 3-0 Vancouver.
The bottom of the second featured some nice glove work from Machado at short as he made a sliding stop on a Manuel Peña ground ball before throwing out the Hillsboro left fielder.
That was the second of three straight hitters retired by Harrison to end the frame.
Doughty opened the top of the third with an opposite-field single to right against Cabrera but Peyton Williams would hit into an inning-ending 6-3 double play.
Hillsboro would get to Harrison in the bottom of the third. A leadoff walk by Corniel came around to score on a Graham triple to right with one out. Harrison would prevent Graham from coming home as he struck out Troy before getting Muntz to ground out to short.
Jeff Wehler singled up the middle to start the top of the fourth but was thrown out trying to steal second on a 2-4 play and that was the only thing the C’s accomplished with the bats.
David Martin worked the count to ball four against Harrison in the bottom of the fourth. The Hops catcher got to second on a wild pitch with one out and to third on a two-out passed ball by Rios but was stranded when Day flew out to right.
Cabrera set down the C’s in order in the top of the fifth and the Hops would get something going against Harrison in the bottom half of the frame. Corniel drew a leadoff walk and went to third on a one-out single to right by Graham. Harrison and manager Brent Laval argued that Doughty had tagged out Corniel at third but replays showed Corniel’s foot got to the bag on the slide just before the tag. Troy produced a sacrifice fly to center to bring in Corniel with Hillsboro’s second run. The inning ended when Rios threw out Graham trying to swipe second as Wehler put down the tag.
The Canadians would respond when Doughty had a leadoff single to right and the bases would be loaded when Williams followed with a knock to right and Wehner walked. Emailin Montilla relieved Cabrera and saw his first pitch to Rios go to center field for a sacrifice fly to score Doughty to put the C’s ahead 4-2.
Hillsboro would make it a one-run game against Sam Ryan in the bottom of the sixth. Muntz and Martin both singled to left with Martin getting forced out at second on a 4-6 fielder’s choice from Peña. Andrew Pintar hit a slow bouncer to short to bring Muntz home.
Peñiel Otaño had a 1-2-3 frame for Hillsboro in the top of the seventh and Ryan worked around a leadoff walk to Corniel by striking out Patiño for the first of three consecutive outs. Wehler made a diving catch to snare a sinking liner off Troy for the third out.
Vancouver got a two-out rally going against Otaño when Williams singled to right, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Wehler RBI single to center by sliding in feet first to beat the tag and increase the C’s lead to 5-3.
The bottom of the eighth began with controversy when Muntz claimed he was hit in the hand by a Ryan pitch but it was ruled a foul ball. Home plate umpire Daniel Blytheway ejected Muntz moments after a called third strike. Martin got a one-out base hit to right and Pintar had a base knock to right with two out. Day then tripled to deep center beyond a leaping Devonte Brown to score Martin and Pintar to tie the game at 5-5.
Liam Norris was on the mound for the Hops in the ninth and plunked Brown in the stomach after the ball bounced in the dirt with one out Brown went to second on a wild pitch with two outs but that was as far as he would get as Spain and Turconi poppled up to third and short respectively.
Justin Kelly was put to the test right away by covering the bag at first to just get Patiño to complete the 3-1 play for the first out. Graham then sharply grounded out to first for the second out. Troy kept the inning going with an infield single to Kelly near the third base line. A passed ball moved Troy to second but Kelly struck out Jean Walters—who replaced Muntz at first base—went down swinging.
With Turconi starting the top of the 10th inning as the placed runner at second base, Williams was the first C’s hitter to put a ball into play as his ground-rule double bounced on the warning track in right field to put Vancouver ahead again. Ryan McCarty pinch-ran for Williams and he would get to third with back-to-back walks by Wehler and Rios but Norris limited the damage to just one run.
It was up to Kelly to preserve the lead in the bottom of the 10th and he kept Walters as the placed runner at second base after Martin grounded to third with McCarty getting the putout at first. A Peña fly ball to right did get Martin over to third and Pintar would get aboard with a base on balls. Day came up with a chance to extend or end the game for the Hops but he grounded out into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to get the final out of the game.
C-Notes
Justin Kelly was the winning pitcher as he collected his fifth win of the year against one loss. The C’s are now 26 games over the .500 mark at 62-36 and are 24-9 in the second half.
A couple of streaks came to an end for a couple of Canadians. Infielder Michael Turconi saw his hitting streak snapped at 15 games and reliever Sam Ryan saw his scoreless streak at 15 appearances covering 22-1/3 innings.
The C’s and Hops play again at 7:05 p.m. Friday at The Tonk. Hunter Gregory gets the start for Vancouver. The game will be streamed on CanadiansBaseball.com with Tyler Zickel and can also be seen on MiLB.TV. Rafael Sánchez and Pat Gallagher will get the starting assignments over the weekend.
Congratulations to 2019, 2021 and 2022 Vancouver Canadians utility player Davis Schneider as he is going to the show. The 24-year-old from Voorhees, New Jersey’s been called up by the Toronto Blue Jays after hitting 275/.416/.553 with 21 home runs and 64 runs batted in with Triple-A Buffalo this season. Schneider was taken in the 28th round of the 2017 MLB Draft out of Eastern High School in Voorhees Township.
2022 C’s lefty Jimmy Robbins has been promoted from Double-A New Hampshire to Buffalo. In 18 starts spanning 80-1/3 innings with the Fisher Cats, the 25-year-old Robbins struck out 79 batters and walked 50 while going 4-8 with a 4.71 earned run average.
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