The Vancouver Canadians dropped a 4-2 decision to the Hillsboro Hops at Nat Bailey Stadium on Sunday.
Vancouver righthander Anders Tolhurst started the game by striking out the side in the top of the first inning, fanning Andrew Pintar, Jack Hurley and Kevin Graham.
Tolhurst struck out his fourth hitter in a row but it was an unconventional one was due to a pitch clock violation by Gino Groover. That was the start of a 1-2-3 top of the second.
Billy Corcoran had a perfect bottom of the first for Hillsboro but yielded the first baserunner of the game with a one-out walk to Peyton Williams. Garrett Spain then singled down the right field line with two outs but he fell down and was shaken up. Williams got to third on the play but he and Spain would be stranded as Santiago struck out and Estiven Machado flew out to center to finish the bottom of the second.
Tolhurst was able to retire the side in order the first time around in the top of the third, thanks in large part to Santiago who robbed Gavin Logan of a home run with a leaping catch in front of the left field fence for the second out.
Tolhurst struck out Pintar to begin the top of the fourth before back-to-back two-out singles by Graham and Groover to left and right respectively. He induced a pop-up to first by Cerda to get out of the inning.
Corcoran also faced the minimum in the bottom of the third. Dasan Brown had reached base safely after Logan dropped the ball at first on the throw from short from Juan Corniel from short. Brown did not realize the ball was dropped and was too far away from first to get back in time. He was eventually thrown on a 3-6-1-6-3 rundown. Logan was charged with an error.
Gunnar Groen was the first Hops reliever out of the bullpen. Josh Kasevich made it on base because of an error at third by Groover who had the ball glance off his glove into left field. Kasevich would steal second base and steal third. A throwing error by Cerda on the latter steal resulted in Kasevich coming home with the game’s first run. Spain then got a hustle double by blooping one in front of a diving Hurley in center. Santiago then singled up the middle to score Spain to make it 2-0 Vancouver.
Tolhurst struck out Franco to begin the bottom of the fifth and retired Peña by covering the first base bag on a 3-1 putout. He was a strike away from completing five innings but he wound up walking Logan. Southpaw Cooper Benson was brought into the game and he struck out Corniel to keep the Hops at bay. That was the first time the C’s held a lead for longer than a half-inning since Tuesday.
Kekai Rios lined a single to right to begin the bottom of the fifth off Groen. Ryan McCarty then earned a base on balls with one away but they would not go any further.
The top of the sixth started with Williams making a nice running catch in foul territory along right field to retire Pintar for out number one. Hurley was hit by a pitch but Benson got out of the jam with a strikeout of Graham and a 5-4 fielder’s choice from Groover.
After Zach Barnes put the C’s away quickly with a perfect bottom of the sixth, the Hops would get on the board with a walk by Cerda, a single to center by Franco and a Machado error at second as he was handcuffed on a Peña ground ball at second. That resulted in Cerda scoring the first Hillsboro run. Benson fanned Logan and got Corniel to fly out to center but Pintar crushed a three-run homer to the left field porch to put the Hops up 4-2. Justin Kelly subbed in for Benson and walked Hurley before Santiago made a leaping catch in left field to rob Graham of a hit to end the inning.
Brown reached base on another error, this time by Peña and Brown had to scramble back just in time to make it to first. Unfortunately, Brown’s stay on base was short lived. He thought a pitch to McCarty was ball four but it was ball three and he was picked off by Barnes to end the bottom of the seventh.
Kelly walked Groover in the top of the eighth inning. A fly out to center by Cerda marked the end of Kelly’s time on the hill. Lefty Ian Churchill came into the contest and Groover swiped second on a questionable call by base umpire Robert Ginther III.
Vancouver native Eli Saul was the next Hops reliever of the contest and he surrendered a leadoff single to left by McCarty. Kasevich lined out to right and that was the only other meaningful contact of the inning.
Ian Churchill fanned Logan in the top of the ninth but was pulled after a Corniel single to center field. Eric Pardinho struck out Pintar and the inning later ended when Rios threw out Corniel trying to pilfer second.
Santiago picked up a hustle double to right in the top of the ninth but that was the final regular season hit at home for the C’s as Saul closed it out for the save.
C-Notes
The C’s fall to 36-24 in the second half and 74-51 for the season. Eugene lost to Tri-City to cut Everett’s magic number to two. An Everett win over Spokane Sunday would all but clinch a playoff berth for the AquaSox and put them even for first place in the second-half standings with the Canadians.
Vancouver could find itself in second place in the second-half standings by the time they begin a six-game series in Tri-City on Tuesday as Everett plays Eugene at Funko Field on Labour Day Monday. All six games of the final regular season series of 2023 begin at 6:30 p.m. at Gesa Stadium. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com.
C-Changes
Infielder Alex De Jesús is back on the seven-day injured list after returning to action with the club earlier this week. Catcher Lyle Lin has been activated from the Development List.
2011 C’s pitcher Aaron Sánchez was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks organization on August 30, nine days before letting go of 2017 C’s infielder Kevin Vicuña. The Houston Astros organization released lefty Nick Allgeyer (2018) on August 28, just after being acquired from Philadelphia in a trade on May 5. Sánchez and Allgeyer were at Triple-A and Vicuña was at Double-A at the time of their releases.
Radar Gun Rundown
Anders Tolhurst was at 77 miles per hour with strikeouts of 94, 93, 94, 84, 86 and 92.
Cooper Benson was at 79-93 with strikeouts at 92 and 90. Justin Kelly was at 92, Ian Churchill had a strikeout at 94 and Eric Pardinho’s K clocked in at 86.
C-Tweets
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