The Vancouver Canadians fell 5-3 to the Hillsboro Hops at Ron Tonkin Field on Saturday.
The C’s got their first baserunner with one out when Dasan Brown drew a one-out walk but Hops starter Yilber Diaz got the next two men out.
The Hops took the lead one batter in when Wilderd Patiño homered to left-center field off Rafael Sánchez. Tommy Troy singled to left, David Martin walked and Christian Cerda had a base knock to left but Devonte Brown threw out Troy at the plate to keep it a 1-0 game.
Sánchez would get the next two Hops out, ending the frame with a strikeout of Kevin Graham.
Hillsboro added to their lead in the bottom of the second with Josh Day leading off with a single to left. Manuel Peña hit into a 4-6 fielder’s choice but got to third on a double to left by Juan Corniel. Troy walked with two outs. Martin singled to left to score Peña and Corniel but Troy was thrown out by Devonte Brown at third for the third out.
The Canadians were retired in order in the second before Ryan McCarty connected for his first Northwest League home run to left-center field on the first pitch by Diaz in the top of the third. Devonte Brown walked with one out and stole second base and Michael Turconi extended his on-base streak to 32 games with a two-out base on balls but they would be stranded.
Garrett Spain had a two-out triple to center field but Diaz put up another goose egg on the linescore in the top of the fourth.
After Sánchez struck out Juan Franco and Graham to end a perfect bottom of the third, the Hops went back to the attack in the home half of the fourth. Day doubled to left and scored on a Peńa single to right. Peña advanced to second on a wild pitch and got to third on a Cerda single but Devonte Brown got another assist in left as he started a 7-5-4 putout to get Cerda at second. Peña would get home on a Patiño infield single to third to make it 5-1 Hillsboro.
Diaz only gave up a Dasan Brown two-out single to left as the Hops maintained their four-run advantage.
Eric Pardinho replaced Sánchez for the bottom of the fifth and got into a bases-loaded jam on one-out singles to right by Cerda and Franco and a two-out walk by Troy. Pardinho got out of it with a pair of strikeouts by Graham and Peña.
Vancouver mounted a rally in the top of the sixth against new Hillsboro hurler Billy Corcoran. Cade Doughty reached on an infield single to second and Josh Kasevich singled to left. A wild pitch scored Doughty from second and moved Kasevich to third as Martin could not locate the ball as it rolled to the backstop. Corcoran had to leave the mound and get the ball instead. Peyton Williams got Kasevich home with a sacrifice fly to center field. McCarty singled to center with two outs before Corcoran got out of the inning.
More trouble was encountered by Pardinho after he struck out Corniel to start the bottom of the sixth. Patiño singled to center and stole second and got to third on a wild pitch with two outs. Martin walked before Pardinho got Cerda to fly out to center to finish the frame.
Lefthander Naswell Paulino replaced Pardinho in the bottom of the seventh and yielded a Franco single to center but got the next three men in order with an inning-ending strikeout of Peña.
Billy Corcoran had a 1-2-3 seventh for the Hops and Vancouver, B.C. native Eli Saul also pitched a scoreless eighth with his only blemish being a hit-by-pitch as he grazed Williams on the right elbow.
Paulino extended his consecutive batters retired streak to six in the bottom of the eighth by fanning Patiño and Troy for outs two and three.
Saul was back for the ninth and retired pinch-hitter Gabby Martinez—batting for Jommer Hernández—in the midst of a perfect frame to collect the save against his hometown club.
C-Notes
The C’s reached the 100-game mark of the season with a record of 62-38 and a second-half mark of 24-11. The first-half champion C’s hold a five-game lead over Everett and a seven-game advantage on Eugene in the second-half standings.
Vancouver had not lost two in a row since June 2-3 when the Eugene Emeralds did the deed at Nat Bailey Stadium.
The C’s will turn to Pat Gallagher who will make his Canadians debut on the mound. Game time is 1:05 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
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