The Vancouver Canadians were held off the scoreboard in a 4-0 setback to the Spokane Indians at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday.
Spokane started the scoring in the top of the second inning off Vancouver starter Chris McElvain. A throwing error by Ryan McCarty at third base allowed Juan Guerrero to reach safely. A groundout to first by Jesus Bugarin and a bloop single to left field by Jesus Ordoñez got Guerrero over to third. Guerrero and Ordoñez pulled off a double steal when catcher Jommer Hernández tried to nab Ordoñez at second. That allowed Guerrero to beat the throw home from C’s second baseman Estiven Machado for the game’s first run.
The second inning saw Spokane triple its lead with one out. Dyan Jorge flared a single to right and scored when Kyle Karros—son of former Los Angeles Dodger Eric Karros—tripled to right-center field beyond the reach of a diving Dasan Brown from center field. A Robby Martin Jr. sacrifice fly to center brought in Karros to make it 3-0 Spokane.
The visitors capped off the scoring when Trevor Boone took McElvain deep to left-center for a one-out solo homer in the fourth.
C-Notes
Congratulations to 2022 Vancouver Canadians infielder Addison Barger on his promotion to the Toronto Blue Jays. He batted .314 with a 1.023 OPS with 13 extra-base hits in 19 games, including three homers at Triple-A Buffalo this season. A 2018 sixth-round by Toronto out of King High School in Florida, Barger will be joining the Jays who continue their series in Kansas City.
Vancouver did not get their first baserunner aboard against Spokane starter Mason Green until the top of the third when Glenn Santiago drew a leadoff walk. Santiago—back for a third tour of duty with Monty’s Mounties after being reassigned from Double-A New Hampshire—went to second and third on two wild pitches with the latter being ball four to Brown. Santiago and Brown—after stealing second—were left in scoring position when Ryan McCarty lined out to short.
Vancouver also had two runners in scoring position in the seventh. Luis Amoroso gave up back-to-back one-out singles by Jackson Hornung—whose first hit was also a leadoff knock to right—and Santiago who singled to left. Tthey moved up a base on a wild pitch with two outs but Machado popped up to third to end the rally.
Jace Bohrofen had the first base hit for Vancouver with an opposite-field single to left off Green to begin the fourth. The former Arkansas Razorback was robbed of a hit by Boone who made a diving grab at first base with Anderson Bido on the hill for Spokane.
The last Vancouver hit was a one-out single to left by McCarty in the eighth off lefty Carson Skipper. Zach Agnos finished the game with a 1-2-3 ninth for Spokane.
McElvain stranded a Karros double that went off the wall in center field above the manual scoreboard with two outs in the bottom of the first by getting Martin to ground out to second. The former Vanderbilt Commodore struck out Boone and Braiden Ward to end the second inning and struck out Ward again in the fourth.
Rafael Ohashi, Conor Larkin and Naswell Paulino combined for five shutout innings out of the Vancouver bullpen. Ohashi supplied the bulk of that with three goose eggs. His only blemish was hitting Boone on the left elbow to start the top of the seventh. Boone was forced out on a 3-6 fielder’s choice from Ward and Ohashi went on to pick off Ward on a 1-6 play. That helped the Brazilian righthander face the minimum over his three innings of work in which he recorded six groundouts.
Larkin also faced the minimum in the eighth. He struck out Jorge for the first out and he got help from his batterymate Hernández who threw out Martin trying to pilfer second after his two-out single to left.
Paulino worked a 1-2-3 frame by handling a bunt attempt to throw out Guerrero for the first out of the ninth. The lefty followed that up with a strikeout of Bugarin.
The defensive highlight of the night came from Santiago who made a diving stab of a sharp ground ball by Ordoñez to start a 3-1 putout to McElvain for the first out of the fourth inning.
Another display of good glove work came from Nick Goodwin who handled a pick of a short hop to throw out Jorge to begin the fifth inning.
C-Changes
The Canadians will be without lefthander Kendry Rojas as he was placed on the seven-day injured list retroactive to April 22. The Cuban has not pitched since April 10 when he blanked Hillsboro over five shutout innings to earn his first Northwest League victory.
One new player has joined the roster in catcher José Ferrer. The 5-foot-11 backstop has been assigned to the C’s Development List from Triple-A Buffalo. Ferrer has been in the Blue Jays system since July 2, 2017, when he signed as a free agent from Venezuela. The 25-year-old righthanded hitter from Carona was placed on the 60-day injured list to start 2023 but saw action in 10 games split across the Florida Complex League, Double-A New Hampshire and Buffalo.
Kevin Miranda will be on the mound when the C’s square off against Spokane on Wednesday. The first pitch is at 7:05 p.m. on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges on the call.
Radar Gun Rundown
Chris McElvain had strikeouts that checked in at 87, 83 and 93 miles per hour and was around 82-96. Rafael Ohashi was at 81-92. Conor Larkin punched out a batter at 81 and was up to 95. Naswell Paulino struck out a batter at 81.
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