The Vancouver Canadians fell to the Spokane Indians 4-2 in their 2024 Northwest League season opener at Avista Stadium on Friday.
Spokane snapped a 1-1 tie with three runs off C’s reliever Anders Tolhurst in the seventh inning. The righthander ran into trouble by plunking Braiden Ward After a Cole Carrigg base hit to center field, an errant pickoff throw by Tolhurst moved the runners up and Dyan Jorge singled up the gut for a two-run knock. A Jommer Hernández passed ball allowed Jorge to advance to second base and he sc ored on a Robby Martin Jr. single to center.
The C’s had tied the game in the top of the seventh when Dylan Rock doubled for the first Vancouver hit of the season with a one-out double to left off Carlos Torres. Rock scampered home on Ward’s throwing error from second off the bat of Brennan Orf.
Dasan Brown led off the top of the eighth with a home run to left field against Spokane reliever Davis Palermo but that was a close as the C’s got. Zach Agnos slammed the door shut with a spotless ninth to save the win for Torres.
Spokane opened the scoring in the sixth A hustle double by Jorge started the inning off Vancouver reliever Alex Amalfi. A Kyle Karros walk and a Martin bunt single to third loaded the bases before Bryant Betancourt‘s bases-loaded walk brought in Jorge.
C-Notes
The Canadians found out why Chase Dollander was a first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies. The former Tennessee righty pitched five no-hit innings, issuing three walks and striking out eight.
Vancouver’s best chances to open the scoring against Dollander came in the third and fourth innings. Orf drew a leadoff walk in the third inning before being forced out on a Jackson Hornung 5-4 fielder’s choice. A Dollander two-out throwing error on a Brown tapper to the mound put two runners in scoring position but Ryan McCarty struck out swinging.
In the fourth, Jace Bohrofen led off with a walk and Nick Goodwin was hit by a pitch. Rock drew a two-out walk which would have loaded the bases but Bohrofen was thrown out at third beforehand on the front end of a double steal at third by Betancourt. Orf fouled out at third to strand the two runners.
Ryan Jennings‘ performance was overshadowed by Dollander but he matched his counterpart zero for zero over the first four frames. He stranded a leadoff walk and stolen base by Carrigg with a pair of strikeouts of Karros and Martin before a 1-2-3 second inning ended with two more swinging Ks from Juan Guerrero and Jesus Bugarin.
Jennings worked around a Ward hit by pitch and stolen base in the third and struck out Guerrero again to end the fourth inning to leave Betancourt’s base hit and steal at second base.
Amalfi gave up a single to Bugarin and a double to Ward in relief of Jennings in the fifth but he induced a 5-4-3 double play from Trevor Boone in between to help keep Spokane from scoring. After loading the bases and giving up a run-scoring walk, Amalfi left the bags loaded when he struck out Guerrero and threw out Karros at home on a 1-3 play. Grayson Thurman put out the fire by striking out Boone looking.
Johnathan Lavallee made his Northwest League debut on the mound in the bottom of the eighth and worked a one-hit frame, ending it by spearing a line drive from Ward.
Estiven Machado entered the game as a defensive replacement for Wehler at second base in the eighth after Wehler grounded out to end the seventh.
The second game of this series and season is set for 5:09 p.m. on Saturday. Rafael Sánchez gets the ball for Vancouver. The game can be heard on CanadiansBaseball.com with Tyler Zickel broadcasting the action.
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