The Vancouver Canadians lost to the Eugene Emeralds 8-6 at P.K. Park on Wednesday.
The Emeralds roughed up C’s starter Adam Macko with a four-run first inning that featured some short ball and a long ball. Grant McCray and Carter Howell opened the bottom of the first with bunt singles back to the mound. Jared Dupere singled to left with one out to score McCray before Luis Toribio launched a three-run home run to right-center field to put Eugene ahead 4-0.
Macko struck out Thomas Gavello and Dupere to begin and end the second inning but the Emeralds still added on in the second inning. Damon Dues walked, stole second base and went to third on a wild pitch with one out. McCray joined Dues in scoring position with a walk and a swipe of second. Dues was thrown out at home on a fielder’s choice to third when Cade Doughty started a 5-2 fielder’s choice that ended with Kekai Rios applying the tag. Aeverson Arteaga would score Dues with a base hit to center to give the home side a five-run lead.
The C’s were retired in order by Em’s starter Hayden Wynja in the top of the first inning and only managed a Gabby Martinez walk and Ryan McCarty single to left in the second and a Dasan Brown two-out single to left in the third.
The bottom of the third inning was Macko’s best of the night as he struck out the side by fanning Toribio, Zach Morgan and Ghordy Santos. Unfortunately, he would not get anybody else out for the remainder of the game. The lefty plunked Gavello and made an errant pickoff throw before surrendering an infield single to second by Dues in the bottom of the fourth. Naswell Paulino could not strand Gavello as he made a throwing error on a pickoff attempt on Dues at first to make it 6-0 Eugene. Paulino struck out McCray and had two outs but an Arteaga double to right and a Dupere single to the nine-spot scored Dues and Arteaga respectively to increase the Emeralds run total to eight.
Meanwhile, Wynja limited the C’s to a two-out base hit to left by Martinez and a leadoff single by Rios in the fifth. Paulino had a 1-2-3 fifth with an inning-ending whiff of Gavello.
Vancouver finally scored against Emeralds reliever Eric Silva in the top of the sixth. Doughty led off with a double to center and got to third on a one-out single that deflected off Silva and base umpire Nelson Fraley. Martinez then singled to left to drive in Doughty for the C’s first run. A wild pitch by Silva allowed Kasevich to score on a close play at the plate. The ball caromed off the backstop right back to Morgan at the plate but Kasevich just made it with a feet-first slide at the plate to give Vancouver its second run. McCarty walked and both he and Martinez moved into scoring position on a Rios bouncer to short but that was as far as they would get.
Hunter Gregory had an eventful bottom of the sixth on the mound for the C’s. McCray walked and stole second base with one out and Howell reached on an infield single to short and stole second to put two runners in scoring position. Gregory would keep them there as he struck out Arteaga looking and Dupere swinging to strike out the side after beginning the frame by freezing Dues at the dish.
The Canadians loaded the bases against William Kempner in the top of the seventh when Devonte Brown walked and Dasan Brown was hit by pitch. Garrett Spain also took one for the team with one out but the best Vancouver could do was a sacrifice fly to right by Kasevich to score Devonte Brown to make it an 8-3 game.
Anders Tolhurst was brought in for the bottom of the seventh and stranded a two-out single to right and stolen base by Santos by striking out Gavello looking.
Southpaw Ian Churchill had a baserunner to deal with in the bottom of the eighth. He issued a leadoff walk to Dues but a strikeout of McCray and a pickoff of Dues got him out of the frame.
After Kempner worked a perfect top of the eighth, Hunter Dula was brought in for the top of the ninth. He walked Devonte Brown but he was replaced by Dasan Brown on the basepaths after hitting into a 5-4- fielder’s choice. Dasan Brown was balked over to second before Doughty drew a walk and they would score on a Spain three-run homer to right-center field.
Martinez drew a two-out base on balls to bring the potential tying run to the plate but McCarty flew out to left to end the game.
C-Notes
Adam Macko took the loss to fall to 4-5 on the year. The C’s lost their 40th game of the year to drop to 68-40 and it was their 13th loss against 30 wins for the second half. Vancouver has its playoff ticket already punched with their first-half pennant win and holds a 6-1/2 game lead on Everett for first place in the second-half standings. The Emeralds are now 1-1/2 games back of the AquaSox for second place and the right to face Vancouver in the Northwest League final. Both clubs finished with 34 wins in the first half so it all comes down to how they do in the second-half standings. The Frogs and Em’s end the regular season with a six-game series in Everett. Right now, the AquaSox are in the driver’s seat in the season series as they hold a 13-7 advantage to give them the current tie-breaking head-to-head advantage.
This series between the C’s and Em’s opened on Wednesday after Tuesday’s game was postponed due to poor air quality caused by nearby forest fires. Only 1,033 fans showed up at P.K. Park for Wednesday’s contest. Just one fan was seen sitting nearby the C’s third base dugout for the majority of the contest on MiLB.TV.
The Canadians send Devereaux Harrison to the mound on Thursday in a 6:35 p.m. start. Tyler Zickel will call the action on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game is also available on MiLB.TV.
Hunter Gregory is slated to start Friday’s game before the two teams play a doubleheader at 4:05 p.m. on Saturday. Rafael Sánchez will start Game 1. Probable starters for Game 2 and Sunday have not been announced.
The Emeralds did former Oregon Duck Josh Kasevich dirty on Tuesday night by selecting him as the ‘Beer Batter’. Unfortunately, he did strike out just moments after hitting one just foul down the right field line but I thought it was a classless move and it was disrespectful to Kasevich as he enjoyed a solid career with Oregon during his days at P.K. Park. The Emeralds are certainly not the only team who does beer-related promotions like these but I hate them. People drink enough booze at games as it is so why provide further encouragement. I am glad the Canadians do not engage in this practice.
C-Changes
Catcher Lyle Lin has been promoted to Double-A New Hampshire to fill in for 2019 C’s catcher Phil Clarke who has been placed on the Fisher Cats seven-day injured list. If Lin does return to Vancouver, the 26-year-old from Taipei, Taiwan will need a new uniform number as outfielder Devonte Brown has taken over number 10 from Lin after wearing number five to begin the season. This will not be Lin’s first time in Double-A as he played the Amarillo Sod Poodles in 2021 and hit his first professional home run at Frisco on August 8. His second career home run came this year with the C’s against his former team in Hillsboro on July 8.
C-Tweets
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