C’s Recap – 2023 Vancouver Canadians Season in Review (Championship Edition, 1st Half)

Welcome to Part One of the 2023 Vancouver Canadians Season in Review at C’s Plus Baseball.

The 2023 campaign for manager Brent Lavallee‘s club started four days late thanks to Mother Nature as the opening three-game weekend series against Spokane was washed out at Nat Bailey Stadium. That pushed the home and season opener to Tuesday, April 11 against Tri-City and that game established a theme that the 2023 Canadians would somehow find a way to get the job done. Chad Dallas set the tone on the mound with 11 strikeouts over five shutout innings but the team had to put in some overtime. Devonte Brown came off the bench to pinch-run in his Northwest League debut and scampered home on a wild pitch in the 10th inning for the first of 12 walk-off wins.

Devonte Brown would also contribute with the bat by capping a five-run rally with a game-winning RBI triple on April 14 to erase a four-run deficit in the eighth inning. After a 4-1 start to the year that included a rain-shortened win over the Dust Devils and the series finale being postponed due to the inclement weather, the C’s hit a bump in the road on the road by losing five of six in Everett and dropping the series opener to the Eugene Emeralds in a rematch of the 2022 Northwest League final. However, the C’s found the right recipe for their home cooking as they rebounded to take four of six against the Emeralds, capped by a two-run homer in the 10th by Alex De Jesús to end the month of April with a winning record at 9-8.

The C’s rolled into May by taking five of six in Hillsboro. Among the highlights were Dallas earning Northwest League Pitcher of the Week honours with nine strikeouts over six innings of one-run ball to get the win on May 3. A Jommer Hernández homer proved to be the difference in another victory over the Hops and Dasan Brown was balked home in the ninth for a come-from-behind win on May 6. The Canadians returned home to face the Everett AquaSox and it was Oakville, Ontario’s finest Dasan Brown who hit a walk-off dinger for a 10th-inning win on May 8. Monty’s Mounties would outslug the AquaSox 23-3 over the next two days, featuring five shutout innings from starters Adam Macko and Trenton Wallace on May 11 and May 12. That was Macko’s first win as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays organization and Wallace’s five no-hit frames and seven strikeouts led to him capturing NWL Pitcher of the Week honours. Everett would win the next two to salvage the series split.

A 15-game gauntlet through Tri-City and Spokane awaited the C’s as they made up three of the four games that were washed out at The Nat back in April to go along with the 12 games already on the schedule. The club said goodbye to Dallas and reliever Connor Cooke as they were promoted to Double-A New Hampshire.

Righthander Rafael Sánchez was called up from Low-A Dunedin. The Pasco portion of the trip did not go well as Vancouver dropped five of seven to the Dust Devils. However, the season’s revelation happened during this series as Devereaux Harrison came out of the bullpen to make his first start. He delivered a much-needed boost to the starting rotation with five shutout frames of one-hit ball and six strikeouts on an economical 53 pitches in an eventual win over Tri-City on May 21. Harrison was named the league’s Pitcher of the Week for that effort.

That start by Harrison helped spur the C’s to a three-game winning streak as they swept a doubleheader at Spokane to open that eight-game series. Catcher Andrés Sosa returned to the club after missing the start of the season with an oblique and all he did was homer on the first pitch he saw to open the scoring in Game 1 on May 23. Along with the promotions of infielder Riley Tirotta and lefty reliever Mason Fluharty, Spokane stormed back with three straight wins of their own to give Vancouver a 4-8 record heading into the final three games of their eight-game set at Avista Stadium. The C’s were supposed to play a doubleheader on Saturday, May 27 but could only play one game instead which resulted in a rain-shortened six-inning win as Dahian Santos shut out Spokane over five innings with four strikeouts. That gave him NWL hurler of the week honours. The C’s did get in that doubleheader on Sunday, May 28 by outscoring Spokane 23-4 over the two games—including a Cade Doughty grand slam—for a two-game sweep to finish the 15-game road trip with a respectable 7-8 mark.

After finishing 11-8 in May, a six-game showdown with Eugene spilled over into June in which the two league finalists won three games apiece at The Nat. Before the series, first baseman Rainer Nuñez and righthanded reliever T.J. Brock got the call to New Hampshire and first baseman Peyton Williams arrived in town from Dunedin. Catcher/first baseman Lyle Lin was also activated from the Development List and he would play a critical role in the team’s signature win of the regular season. Williams would slug his first Northwest League homer against the Emeralds during the same game in which Wallace blanked the Emeralds over six shutout innings for the victory on June 1. That performance earned the lefthander a one-way ticket to Manchester, New Hampshire.

The C’s did get reinforcements for their pitching staff from Dunedin with a pair of righthanded Ryans—Ryan Jennings and Ryan Boyer—with the latter coming off a rehab stint. Lefty Ian Churchill would also arrive during the team’s crucial six-game series in Everett. After a rough trip down the I-5 in April, the AquaSox took the opener and were on the verge of a second straight win on June 7. After falling behind 5-0 in the early going, the C’s were down two runs and down to their last strike but Lin kept hope alive with a bloop single that eluded a diving Walking Cabrera in center field. Monty’s Mounties eventually loaded the bases and Garrett Spain cleared them with a grand slam home run over the center field wall to propel them to victory.

“I remember sitting in the dugout and watching the boys start to rally. After 2 hits I figured I was going to have a chance to get back up. Once I got to the on deck circle everything went fast. Alan (Roden) got up and got hit on the first pitch and I was like here we go. I knew the pitcher (Mike Flynn) loved cutters and sliders so I was anticipating one of those. I got a pitch I really liked early in the at-bat and didn’t do anything with it. In my head, I told myself if he throws that slider again I won’t miss it. Once he threw it I kind of blacked out. For some reason, I wasn’t sure if it was gonna go out or not. Once I saw it go out I turned around and started yelling at the bullpen and the rest was just extreme excitement.” — Garrett Spain

The AquaSox would bounce back with a win the next night but a rainout on a Friday night meant the two sides would play a doubleheader on Saturday, June 10. The C’s emerged with a Game 1 victory thanks to a Williams three-run home run that snapped a 2-2 tie and four shutout innings of relief by Kevin Miranda, who was promoted from Dunedin in late May. Game 2 was one for the history books as RBI singles by Hernández and Alan Roden in the second inning stood up as Harrison no-hit the AquaSox for six innings. Not surprisingly, Harrison picked up his second Pitcher of the Week honours of the season. Matt Svanson entered the game in the seventh and induced a grounder to first off the bat of Hogan Windish. Williams made a diving stop and dove to tag the first base bag with the ball in his glove to keep the no-hitter intact. Unfortunately, Williams injured his shoulder and would miss the next few weeks of action. Williams’ effort was not in vain as Svanson struck out Alberto Rodriguez and Axel Sánchez to complete the seven-inning no-hitter and the doubleheader sweep.

The C’s would win the series finale on June 11 when Dasan Brown, Michael Turconi and Cade Doughty all went deep to support Jennings in his Northwest League debut. The series victory over the AquaSox meant the C’s would head home tied with Spokane for first place in the race for the first-half Northwest League pennant.

The C’s took on the Hillsboro Hops and won the first two games of the series with De Jesús homering twice in the opener before Spain struck again with a walk-off homer on June 14. Roden kept the ninth-inning rally going with a two-out walk before Spain’s heroics which spoiled Vancouver native Eli Saul’s 1-1/3 innings of shutout relief for the Hops. Spain’s homer gave the C’s sole possession of first place. Two days later, Spain walked off the Hops again with a bases-loaded base on balls.

“My favourite walk-off was my first one. We were down by 1 and it was my first walk-off home run ever so that will always hold a special place.” —Garrett Spain

Harrison then delivered six shutout stanzas to win a low-scoring affair on June 17 to set up a first-half Northwest League title clinch situation on Father’s Day. Dasan Brown smacked a three-run home run and Miranda, Cooper Benson, Boyer, Conor Larkin and Justin Kelly limited the Hops to one run. Kelly got Ivan Melendez to hit into a game-ending 6-4-3 double play to clinch the Canadians’ spot in the Northwest League final.

There was even more good news when Abdiel Mendoza won the NWL Pitcher of the Week with six shutout innings of relief against Hillsboro in the June 14 and 17 victories.

Vancouver wrapped up the first half of the season with two road wins out of three at Eugene for an overall record of 38-27, 4-1/2 games ahead of Everett, Eugene and Spokane.