The Vancouver Canadians held off the Tri-City Dust Devils 1-0 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday.
Hunter Gregory was given the starting assignment for Vancouver and stranded a one-out double to right field by D’Shawn Knowles by striking out Joe Stewart and Arol Vera.
Tri-City hurler Chase Chaney also yielded a one-out hit when Garrett Spain singled to center field. Alex De Jesús followed with a base hit to left and Cade Doughty also singled to the seven-spot to drive in Spain with the game’s first run.
Alexander Ramirez led off the top of the second with a base hit to left but was thrown out trying to steal second by Lyle Lin for the 2-6 CS. Gregory then struck out Werner Blakely on the way to face the minimum three batters.
Andy Blake was hit by the hand with a Gregory pitch to begin the top of the third but he did not get to go to first base as home plate umpire Josiah Shepherd ruled the ball went off the bat, even though it sure looked like he was hit on the fingers. Blake shook it off, remained in the game and got a reprieve when Devonte Brown dropped a ball in foul territory in right field for an error. The at-bat ended when Blake popped up to second. Caleb Pendleton singled to left field before Adrian Placencia struck out and Stewart popped out to second.
Chaney walked Brown with one away in the bottom of the third but put up another goose egg on the scoreboard.
Anders Tolhurst was brought in and struck out Vera for the first out in the top of the fourth. Blakely singled to left with two outs but that was the only Tri-City baserunner in the frame.
Chaney retired the side in order in the bottom of the fourth and Tolhurst struck out Blake to begin a 1-2-3 frame in the top of the fifth.
Estiven Machado walked with one out in the bottom of the fifth but that was all for the C’s in the inning.
Tolhurst enjoyed another perfect frame in the top of the sixth, ending it with Vera caught looking at strike three. Chaney also responded with a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth.
Lefthander Cooper Benson put Spain to work in center field as the former Austin Peay Governor ran down a deep fly ball to left-center for the first out. Stewart lifted a routine fly to center for the second out before Benson whiffed Vera to finish up a perfect top of the seventh.
Dylan Phillips relieved Chaney for the bottom of the seventh and the lefthander mowed down the C’s to send the game to the eighth.
Placencia walked with two outs but Benson kept the Dust Devils at bay in the top half of the eighth. Phillips did not give the C’s anything to work with in the bottom of the eighth.
Conor Larkin was brought in for the top of the ninth and he closed the door with an game-ending strikeout of Ramirez to cap off a spotless stanza.
C-Notes
Anders Tolhurst got the win to go to 2-0 and Conor Larkin collected his first save in a C’s uniform in Vancouver’s 66th victory of the season against 39 losses. It was also its 28th win in 40 games in the second half.
Rafael Sånchez will throw the first pitch under the lights Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. Pat Gallagher will get the start on Sunday.
All the best to 2021 Canadians hurler Hagen Danner. Wearing number 65, the Huntington Beach, California native made his MLB debut for the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday and retired the Chicago Cubs Seiya Suzuki on a fly ball to right. Unfortunately, he left the game with what may have been a back injury.
Radar Gun Rundown
Gregory clocked in at 83-to 95 miles per hour and had strikeouts at 84, 98, 92 and 93 miles per hour. Tolhurst checked in at 85 with whiffs of 95 and 95. Benson was at 77 and had one strikeout at 92. Larkin was at 80-95 with a strikeout at 84.
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