The Vancouver Canadians dumped the Tri-City Dust Devils 4-2 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday.
Canadians starter Adam Macko struck out Adrian Placencia to start the game after base umpire Ken Jackson ruled the Dust Devils second baseman went around. Macko fanned D’Shawn Knowles on another heater and got Joe Stewart to line out to third to close out a perfect top of the first.
Dust Devils southpaw Sammy Natera Jr. also had a 1-2-3 fist inning of work that featured a pair of punchouts.
The first hit of the game was an Arol Vera leadoff single in the top of the second to right field that snuck under the glove of C’s first baseman Peyton Willams. Alexander Ramirez went down swinging on three pitches and Werner Blakely was frozen looking at strike three. Vera stole second base before Macko (Stony Plain) won the initial ‘Battle of Alberta’ as he covered the bag on a roller to first to retire fellow Albertan Jamie Coutney (Wetaskiwin) on a 3-1 inning-ending putout.
The top of the third began with a swinging strikeout of Andy Blake and a reverse K on Caleb Pendleton. Placencia singled to center field but was picked off by Macko which went 1-3-6-3 on the scorecard.
Meantime, the Vancouver offence was kept silent by Natera as he retired the entire batting order the first time around.
Knowles singled on a 3-2 pitch against Macko to begin the top of the fourth, stole second base and was balked over to third. Stewart hit a deep sacrifice fly to right field to score Knowles for the game’s first run. Vera walked, Ramirez singled to center and Coutney drew a two-out walk after Blakely struck out to load the bases. The bags were left filled when Macko got Blake to ground out to short.
The Canadians got their first baserunner of the game in the fourth when Devonte Brown drew a leadoff walk but that was wiped off the board by an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Alex De Jesús.
Ryan Boyer was the first C’s reliever of the night as he was brought in to work the top of the fifth. He retired Pendleton on a chopper back to the mound, struck out Placencia and got the putout on Knowles on a 3-1 groundout.
The C’s spoiled Natera’s bid for a no-hitter and a shutout when Williams belted a two-out home run to right field, his fourth of 2023, to tie the game at 1-1. Gabby Martinez doubled to the short fence in left field and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Ryan McCarty hit a grounder to third on a 3-2 pitch that was booted by Blake and that allowed Martinez to cross the plate to give the Canadians a 2-1 advantage. Will Christopherson took over for Natera to get the third out of the frame.
Boyer limited the Tri-City bats to three groundout outs to get the game from the top of the sixth to the bottom. That’s when things got crazy. Dasan Brown lifted a fly ball that went off the base of the center field wall that Knowles completely lost track of and the Oakville Flash motored around the bases for a stand-up inside-the-park home run to make it 3-1 C’s. De Jesús then launched a rainmaker that Stewart thought he had a bead on but the ball was not playable as it landed into the seating area of the C’s left field bullpen to make it back-to-back jacks for Vancouver.
For Dasan Brown and De Jesús, that was home run number seven and 11 respectively. Josh Kasevich drew a two-out walk before the frame came to a close.
Justin Kelly entered the game in the top of the seventh and walked Blakely but he was erased by Jommer Hernández on a 2-6 caught stealing at second. That helped Kelly get out of the inning without further incident.
After Christopherson turned in a perfect bottom of the seventh, the Dust Devils would get to Kelly in the top of the eighth. Placencia doubled off the center field wall by with one out. A Hernández passed ball and a Knowles sacrifice fly lined to left brought Placencia home to bring Tri-City to within two runs. Stewart walked and got to second on a wild pitch but was left there when Kelly fanned Ramirez.
Lefty Nick Horvath was next out of the Dust Devils arm barn for the bottom of the eighth. He walked De Jesús with two away before Doughty was retired on a sharp grounder to third as Blake made a nice backhanded stop before completing the 5-3 putout.
Tri-City opened the ninth with a leadoff knock from Ramirez who singled to center on an 0-2 pitch by lefty Cooper Benson. Blakely struck out looking for the first out and Coutney was given a backwards K for the second out. Blake grounded out into a 4-6 fielder’s choice as Doughty’s flip to Kasevich at second base was just in time to force out Ramirez. That gave Benson his second save of the year and Boyer got the win in relief to go to 3-0.
C-Notes
The Canadians are back to 25 games over the .500 mark at 64-39 and their second-half record goes to 26-12. Everett is four games back of the C’s and are in the driver’s seat to meet Vancouver in the Northwest League final as the AquaSox are four games up on Eugene in the second-half standings.
Devereaux Harrison gets the ball for Vancouver in another 7:05 p.m. start against Tri-City. The game can be heard on CanadiansBaseball.com and seen on MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel on the play-by-play.
C-Changes
Infielder Michael Turconi was promoted to Double-A New Hampshire after Tuesday’s game. He leaves Vancouver with a 34-game on-base streak that included hitting for the cycle in Hillsboro on August 2. The lefthanded hitter slashed .299/.418/.486 for a .904 OPS in 74 games this season. The 24-year-old from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania racked up 29 extra-base hits this season and played a total of 85 games after joining the C’s late in the 2022 season. All the best to Michael in Manchester.
Radar Gun Rundown
Macko ranged from 73-97 miles per hour with strikeouts at 96, 96, 93, 94, 95, 79 and 76. Boyer had a strikeout at 91 and was at 79-92. Kelly had a K of 83 and was up to 97. Benson checked in at 77 and had punchouts at 92 and 90.
C-Tweets
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