The Vancouver Canadians blanked the Hillsboro Hops 2-0 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday.
Monty’s Mounties opened the scoring in the bottom of the second off Hops lefty Spencer Giesting. The inning began with a Dylan Rock single to left and he gained an extra base when Brett Johnson had the ball go underneath his glove for an error. Estiven Machado then took on Giesting in a two-out clash and Giesting did not like it when Machado rocked the casbah with an RBI single to center to score Rock with the game’s first run.
Vancouver added the insurance in the sixth against southpaw Dillon Larsen. A leadoff single to left by Jeff Wehler was rolled on home with another two-out hit in the form of a run-scoring double to right by Rock.
Southpaw Kendry Rojas pitched five shutout frames for the win. Grayson Thurman put up two more zeros in the sixth and seventh and Chay Yeager contributed a shutout eighth to each earn a hold. Anders Tolhurst got the save with a perfect ninth.
C-Notes
Rojas had a stellar Nat Bailey Stadium debut. He only allowed more than one baserunner in the second with Gavin Conticello picking up an infield single to second with two outs before Johnson was hit in the back by a pitch. Rojas would strike out Wyatt Crenshaw swinging to strand the runners. The Cuban lefty allowed just one baserunner the rest of the way when he walked Cerda to start the fourth but he retired six in a row and nine of the last 10 before turning the game over to the bullpen.
Thurman meant business by striking out Manny Peña and Andrew Pintar in a perfect sixth before getting Kevin Sim looking at strike three in the middle of a spotless seventh.
Yeager was greeted by a Johnson leadoff single to left in the eighth but rung up Crenshaw with a reverse K on the way to retiring the next three hitters in a row. Machado made a nice play at second to end the inning. He ranged to his left before spinning around and throwing out Peña from shallow right field.
Tolhurst struck out Cerda looking for the second out of the ninth before making like Thatcher Demko with a kick save to knock a David Martin comebacker to the mound. Tolhurst gathered in the rawhide and made the throw to first in time to end the game.
Dasan Brown started the bottom of the first with a leadoff walk by Giesting, helped by a pitch clock violation when the Hops lefty fell behind in the count 1-0. Brown stole second base and tagged up to go to third on a Jace Bohrofen fly ball to right but was left 90 feet away when Nick Goodwin struck out.
The seventh inning featured two baserunners for the C’s when Machado was nicked on the right elbow in the lefthand batter’s box by Peñiel Otaño with one away. Jommer Hernández followed with a base hit to right. The inning ended when Crenshaw ran down a Wehler drive near the right field line.
Bohrofen began the eighth with a base knock to right off Zane Russell for the C’s final hit of the night.
The Canadians broke out their blue retro jerseys at home for the first time in 2024 on Wednesday. According to broadcaster Tyler Zickel, Rojas wanted to wear the blue uniforms as the blue, red and white match the colours of his native Cuba.
Geison Urbaez is set to make his Northwest League debut on the mound on Thursday for the C’s. Game time is 7:05 p.m. at The Nat and it is available on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV. Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges will have the play-by-play.
Radar Gun Rundown
Kendry Rojas rung up batters at 88 and 95 and also checked in 82 miles per hour.
Grayson Thurman terminated batters at 84, 87 and 83 and was up to 95. Chay Yeager had a K of 95 and was at 85-97. Anders Tolhurst had a reverse K of 95 and was also at 79.
C-Tweets
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