The Vancouver Canadians edged the Tri-City Dust Devils Tri-City Dust Devils 8-7 in 11 innings at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday.
C’s starter Kevin Miranda gave up a two-out single to Joe Redfield before striking out Arol Vera to get out of the first inning. Dust Devils hurler Bryce Osmond issued a one-out walk to Dasan Brown in the bottom of the first. Brown nearly got doubled off on a fly ball to right field by Michael Turconi but Tri-City first baseman and Wetaskiwin, Alberta native Jamie Coutney could not hang on to the ball on the throw from Alexander Ramirez. Brown was caught stealing at second by Dust Devils catcher Myles Emmerson on a 2-6 play to end the inning.
Ramirez led off the top of the second with a base hit to left field but was thrown out at third on a Werner Blakely base hit to right by Garrett Spain. Blakely got to second on the play but Miranda struck out Coutney to eventually get out of the jam.
Vancouver would begin the scoring in the bottom of the second by taking advantage of an extra out. Cade Doughty drew a one-out walk but Osmond should have been out of the inning when Adrian Placencia could not pick up a ground ball at second by Josh Kasevich twice. Instead, Peyton Williams stepped up to the plate and he crushed a three-run home run to center field to put the C’s ahead 3-0.
Williams’ third Northwest League home run travelled 422 feet at a speed of 107 miles per hour according to C’s broadcaster Tyler Zickel. Kekai Rios was hit in the right elbow by an Osmond pitch before the inning ended.
Tri-City got a two-out infield hit from Joe Stewart near the third base line in the top of the third inning but Rios cut him down trying to swipe second with a 2-6 caught stealing to end the frame. The C’s also had a two-out baserunner when Alex De Jesús walked but Osmond kept Vancouver off the board in the bottom of the third.
Miranda and Osmond traded zeros in the fourth inning before the Dust Devils rallied in the top of the fifth. Blakely drew a walk to start the frame but it never should have happened as home plate umpire Ken Jackson missed a foul tip caught by Rios just below the dirt behind home plate. MiLB.TV replays confirmed that Rios snared the ball before it hit the ground but Jackson ruled it a foul ball instead of a foul tip strike three. Blakely stole second base and scored on a base hit to center by Coutney to put the Dust Devils on the board. With one out, an errant pickoff throw to first by Rios allowed Coutney to get to second. Myles Emmerson singled to left and Placencia walked to load the bases. Stewart hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice and reached base on a throwing error at second by Turconi as he tried to turn the double play, Turconi’s throw was out of the reach of Williams at first as he could only get a glove on the ball. That was the end of the night for Miranda and he voiced his displeasure towards umpire Jackson for the missed foul tip for strike three. Hunter Gregory took the ball for the C’s and ended the inning with a Redfield fly ball to center.
The bottom of the fifth saw Rios bust out of an 0-for-21 slump with a solid base knock to right field but Osmond induced a 6-4-3 double play ball from Devonte Brown to effectively kill that rally.
The top of the sixth began with a defensive highlight for the C’s as Doughty made a diving stop on a grounder to third by Vera before making a strong throw to complete to 5-3 play. Ramirez beat out an infield single to short and stole second base. Gregory sandwiched a strikeout of Coutney with walks to Blakely and Steven Rivas. Anders Tolhurst was brought in for Gregory and ran the count full to Emmerson before getting an inning-ending groundout to short.
Turconi singled to left to begin the bottom of the sixth and stretch his on-base streak to 34 games against Tri-City reliever Andrew Peters. A two-out walk by Spain kept the inning going for Kasevich and his single to right scored Turconi to put the C’s ahead 4-3.
The Dust Devils answered back in the top of the seventh against Tolhurst. Placencia singled to center and Stewart walked and they advanced on a Redfield fly out to center. However, Dasan Brown was charged with a throwing error on the throw to third as he tried to get Placencia who tagged up from second. That allowed Stewart to go to second. C’s manager Brent Lavallee paid a visit to the mound and the bullpen cart was about to leave the C’s left field bullpen. However, Tolhurst remained in the game to face Vera who would single to left on a 0-2 pitch to score Placencia and Stewart who were running fairly close together on their way home to put Tri-City ahead 5-4. It was not as close as the Sushi Race when Chef Wasabi held off Sadahura Soy in a photo finish earlier in the night. Conor Larkin then entered the game and walked Ramirez before Blakely reached on a Turconi fielding error at second to load the bases. Coutney then lifted a fly ball to right field to score Vera with the sixth Tri-City run but Spain earned his second assist of the night as he threw out Ramirez trying to go to third for an inning-ending 9-5 double play.
A one-out walk by Devonte Brown in the bottom of the seventh forced Peters’ exit from the game. Lefty Dylan Phillips gave up a two-out single to right by Turconi but got De Jesús to fly out to left for the third out.
Larkin fanned Rivas and Emmerson for the first two outs of the top of the eighth. Placencia walked and Stewart singled to right but Redfield fouled out to third for out number three.
The C’s drew to within a run in the top of the eighth when Doughty singled up the middle. A Spain groundout to first moved Doughty into scoring position and led to a pitching change as Willian Suarez took over for Phillips. Doughty managed to get to third on a Kasevich grounder to third and came home on a Williams knock to right to make it a 6-5 game. Jeff Wehner pinch-ran for Williams but was stranded when Rios flew out to left.
Ian Churchill was given the top of the ninth for Vancouver on the mound and the lefty overcame a Vera leadoff single to right and a two-out knock to left by Coutney by whiffing pinch-hitter D’Shawn Knowles.
The C’s would force the game to go past regulation when Dasan Brown drilled a one-out game-tying home run off Suarez to left-center in the bottom of the ninth. That was Brown’s sixth homer of the season.
Churchill was back to work in the top of the 10th for Vancouver and walked Emmerson to join Knowles who was the placed runner at second base. Placencia and Stewart went down swinging but Churchill would load the bases by hitting Redfield in the batting helmet. Churchill and Rios both showed their concern for the Dust Devils designated hitter and he was replaced by Casey Dana at first base. The inning ended on a Vera ground ball to short.
Suarez took care of the C’s with a 1-2-3 10th inning, leaving Wehner as the placed runner at second base to send the game into the 11th. Sam Ryan was the Vancouver hurler with Vera starting the top of the frame 180 feet away. Vera was cut down by Kasevich as he fielded a ground ball at short by Ramirez to start a 6-5 putout. Ramirez moved to second on a Blakely walk and would come home on a Coutney base knock to left to put Tri-City ahead 7-6. Knowles loaded the bases with a single to second to fill the bags but Ryan would not allow another fair ball as he struck out Emmerson looking and Placencia to keep the deficit to a run.
Roman Phansalkar tried to close it out for Tri-City in the bottom of the 11th. Instead, he committed a balk and threw a wild pitch to score the placed runner Kasevich with a headfirst slide for the tying run. One out later, Rios blasted his second home run of the year into the left field bullpen to give the C’s the victory.
C-Notes
Sam Ryan runs his record to 4-0 and Vancouver gets its 63rd win against 39 losses and their 25th victory of the second half against 12 losses. Everett is four games back of the C’s and Eugene is seven behind.
Former Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was at the ballpark on Tuesday to sign autographs. He also stopped by the press box to join Tyler Zickel for the broadcast. Gibby said it was his first visit to Nat Bailey Stadium since 1998 when he played for the Triple-A Albuquerque Dukes during the C’s Pacific Coast League days.
Lefty Adam Macko gets the ball for the Canadians on Wednesday and is scheduled to fire the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. The game will be carried on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Miranda was at 76-90 miles per hour with strikeouts at 90 and 89. Gregory had one whiff at 95. Tolhurst was at 82-92. Larkin checked in at 82-97 with Ks of 95 and 94. Churchill had strikeouts of 93 and 94. Ryan had Ks of 88 and 85 and was up to 95.
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