The Vancouver Canadians were handed a 2-1 loss by the Spokane Indians at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday.
Braiden Ward began the game with a bloop single to left field on a 1-2 pitch from Vancouver starter Hunter Gregory. Ryan Ritter dropped down a 1-3 sacrifice bunt to move Ward to second, setting up a Juan Guerrero RBI double to the left field corner to bring in Ward. A ball four/wild pitch put Guerrero at third and Robby Martin Jr. at first base. A Nic Kent grounder to third brought in Guerrero to make it 2-0 Spokane. Gregory ended the inning by striking out Sems.
Spokane lefthander Mason Albright got a helping hand from Ritter at short who ranged deep into the hole to throw out Devonte Brown for the first out. That was the beginning of a 1-2-3 bottom of the first.
Gregory picked up his second strikeout by getting Bryant Quijada to go down swinging, leading to a clean top of the second.
The C”s first base runner of the day was Gabby Martinez who drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the second. He advanced to second on a 4-3 groundout by Garrett Spain but was doubled off on a sinking liner to second caught by Kent for an unassisted deuce.
Gregory turned in another spotless stanza in the top of the third before the C’s got on the board in the bottom half, courtesy of Estiven Machado who mashed his first Northwest League home run to left field for a one-out solo shot.
Brown kept the inning going with a two-out walk but that was it for the offence.
The top of the fourth saw Gregory bookend a perfect inning with strikeouts of Martin and Parker Kelly.
In the bottom of the fourth, Martinez drove one to the warning track in left-center field but Guerrero made a leaping catch. Garrett Spain had a stand-up two-out double to right-center and McCarty was walked on a full-count pitch but Jeff Wehler went down swinging.
A string of 13 consecutive batters retired by Gregory did not go to 14 as A.J. Lewis drew a two-out walk to begin the Spokane fifth. Naswell Paulino was brought in to face Ward and the lefty-lefty matchup went Paulino’s way with a strikeout to end the entrada. The C’s were also turned away by Albright in the bottom of the fifth in his final inning of work.
Paulino struck out Ritter to begin the top of the sixth. He would eventually strand a two-out walk to Martin. Spokane reliever Luis Amoroso froze Abiezel Ramirez with a called strike three to start a perfect bottom half of the inning.
Amoroso’s spotless inning was matched by Paulino to send Spokane away in the top of the seventh. In the home half of the frame, Spain was robbed of a hit as Guerrero made a sliding catch on the warning track in front of the C’s bullpen. Amoroso then plunked Ryan McCarty and gave up a single to right by Wehler to put runners on the corners with one out. Machado would line out to third and McCarty got doubled off to keep the C’s at bay.
Justin Kelly worked the top of the eighth inning for Vancouver and struck out Ward for the second out. Ritter and Guerrero both singled up the gut before Martin lined out to short for the third out.
Devonte Brown doubled to the left field corner against Amoroso with one out in the eighth but he was left there as Angel Chivilli entered the game to retire Williams on a grounder to first for the third out of the inning.
Kent singled just out of the reach of Wehler at third into left field to begin the top of the ninth. In the battle of Kellys, Justin pounced on Parker’s bunt in front of the mound and threw out Kent on a 1-6 fielder’s choice. Justin Kelly covered the bag to complete a 3-1 groundout by Sems after McCarty had trouble initially handling the ball. Quijada then walked but Justin Kelly struck out Lewis to put another zero on the board.
Spokane would also put up a zero as Chivilli put away all three batters he faced to finish out the bottom of the ninth.
C-Notes
Hunter Gregory dropped to 0-6 on the season while Vancouver’s overall mark fell to 75-42, including a 34-18 record in the second half.
The C’s look to play their first eight-and-a-half inning game of the series on Saturday as they send Rafael Sánchez to the slope for a 7:05 p.m. first pitch. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Hunter Gregory was 78-94 miles per hour and his strikeouts were clocked at 86, 93, 79 and 92. Naswell Paulino was at 77-90 with punchouts of 82 and 86. Justin Kelly had Ks of 83 and 84 and was up to 94.
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