Ryan McCarty gets ready to make contact for a game-winning three-run homer in the sixth inning.
The Vancouver Canadians held on for a 6-5 victory over the Hillsboro Hops at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday.
The C’s jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Hillsboro starter Cole Percival. The son of former major league closer Troy Percival hit C’s leadoff man Ryan McCarty on the left wrist with his second pitch of the game. McCarty shook it off and proceeded to steal second base on the next pitch. Jace Bohrofen walked and moved into scoring position with McCarty on a wild pitch. Nick Goodwin then doubled out of the reach of Hops center fielder Andrew Pintar as the ball went to the manual scoreboard, bringing home McCarty and Bohrofen.
Goodwin was then driven home on a single to right by Dylan Rock on a 0-2 pitch.
Hillsboro clawed their way back into the game when Gavin Conticello belted a two-run homer into the C’s left field bullpen off starter Rafael Sánchez to start the fourth inning, scoring a Christian Cerda hit to left.
The Hops evened things up against Grayson Thurman in the top of the fifth. Pintar lined a single to left with one out and stole second base. Tommy Troy then doubled with two outs to score Pintar with the tying run.
Vancouver went back out in front in the bottom of the sixth. Hops lefty issued leadoff walks to Brennan Orf and Jackson Hornung. One out later, Alec Baker entered the game in relief for Hillsboro and retired the first batter he faced. Baker was burned by McCarty who took advantage of a hanging breaking ball on a 3-2 pitch by homering over the wall near the video board in left-center to restore the C’s three-run lead at 6-3.
The Cerda-Conticello combo struck again for Hillsboro in the eighth inning against C’s reliever Johnathan Lavallee. Cerda walked with one out and he trotted home on another Conticello home run to right to draw the Hops to within one.
Chay Yeager closed the door in the ninth with two strikeouts in a perfect frame, whiffing Pintar to end the game and collect the save. Kevin Miranda got the win with a scoreless sixth, surviving a leadoff walk to Conticello.
C-Notes
Sanchez dodged a huge bullet in the top of the first. He started the game with a strikeout of Pinta and ended the frame with a strikeout of Kevin Sim. In between, the Hops loaded the bases with a two-out rally when Troy singled to right and stole second before Conticello and Cerda each drew a base on balls. That drove Sánchez’s pitch count to 28.
The second innings saw Sánchez face the minimum. He tried to backhand a comebacker to the mound from Juan Corniel but Estiven Machado got to the ball from short and made a nice off-balance throw to complete the 1-6-3 putout.
Machado then laid down a bunt single to third with one out but was later thrown out trying to steal second. That especially hurt when McCarty doubled to the right field corner but he would be left 180 feet away.
Goodwin made a strong throw on the money to retire Troy for a 5-3 putout to get Sánchez out of the third.
Bohrofen singled past a diving Manny Peña at second base for a single to right with nobody out in the fourth. Goodwin hit into a 5-4 fielder’s choice and despite a walk from Rock, the Canadians left two men on base against Percival.
Jeff Wehler chased Percival from the game with a leadoff hit to left to start the bottom of the fifth. Lefty Dillon Larsen walked Bohrofen but induced a 5-4-3 double play ball from Goodwin to put a big dent in that rally. Replays on MiLB.TV showed Goodwin looked to be safe at first but base umpire Tim Berreras did not agree.
The C’s had two more baserunners in the eighth on walks by Jaden Rudd and Machado with a Rudd stolen base in between but could not bring them home.
2022 Vancouver Canadians utility man Harry Ray is still in the Toronto Blue Jays nest. He is now working in the Player Development system. Ray was mentioned during Saturday’s broadcast when Tyler Zickel was trying to recall the last player with a three-letter last name with the C’s when Orf was at the plate. The only other player I can remember off the top of my head is 2015 pitcher Turner Lee. Ray was a teammate with current C’s starter Chris McElvain during the truncated 2020 season with Vanderbilt.
Monty’s Mounties look to climb over the .500 mark in the series finale on Sunday. Pat Gallagher will get the starting assignment for Vancouver. Game time is 1:05 p.m. with Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges calling the action on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Rafael Sánchez was at 82-96 miles per hour with strikeouts of 87 and 88. Grayson Thurman was at 82-92 with a strikeout at 91. Kevin Miranda was at 81-89. Johnathan Lavallee was at 81-97 with strikeouts at 93 and 94. Chay Yeager checked in at 87 with strikeouts of 92 and 98.
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