The Vancouver Canadians shut out the Tri-City Dust Devils 5-0 at Gesa Stadium on Wednesday.
The C’s scored the only run they would need in the top of the third inning against Tri-City starter Walbert Urena. It was an eventful leadoff at-bat for Ryan McCarty who fouled a ball off his right foot and needed time to gather himself. He then lifted the next pitch in foul territory near the Dust Devils first base dugout but neither catcher Ronaldo Flores nor first baseman Matt Coutney could not come up with the ball which dropped in between them. Two pitches later, McCarty lined a single to center field for the C’s first hit of the day. He stole second and went to third on a throwing error by Flores. Jace Bohrofen produced a lifted a one-out fly ball to shallow right and the throw by Jorge Ruiz was up the third base line to Flores but the Tri-City backstop could not hang on to the ball when he tried to tag McCarty who was able to step on home plate.
Vancouver busted it open against Urena in the fourth. A Brennan Orf single to center, a Dylan Rock infield knock to third and a Jaden Rudd walk loaded the bases with nobody out. Estiven Machado hit a comebacker to the mound and it had the look of a potential 1-2-3 double play. Instead, Urena’s throw missed the mark and Orf crossed the plate with the C’s second run. Jeff Wehler delivered the kill shot with a two-out, three-run double to left field before being tagged out in a 7-6-4 rundown.
Ryan Jennings pitched four shutout frames before giving away to Rafael Ohashi who put up three more. Conor Larkin and Justin Kelly took care of the eighth and ninth respectively.
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Jennings was masterful over his four innings in which he threw just 53 pitches, 37 for strikes. He capped off a perfect first frame with a strikeout of Ben Gobbel and the only hit he allowed was an infield single to short by Andy Blake with two away in the second. Blake got to second on a stolen base but would go no further.
Jennings’ only other missteps were a hit by pitch to Flores to start the third and a leadoff walk to Gobbel in the fourth. The third inning saw Jennings help handle a Joe Stewart sacrifice bunt that moved Flores to second. The former Louisiana Tech Bulldog got Caleb Ketchup looking at strike three on the way to ending the bottom of the third. The Gobbel walk was erased on a 6-4-3 double play by Coutney and Jennings ended his day by striking out Mason Martin.
Unfortunately, Jennings did not work into the fifth to qualify for the win. That went to Ohashi instead as he mowed down the first six men he faced including a reverse-K on Flores to end the fifth. Gobbel greeted Ohashi with a double to left in the seventh. Coutney advanced Gobbel with a groundout to first but Ohashi struck out Martin and Blake swinging to turn Tri-City away.
Larkin had an uneventful eighth and Kelly worked around a Gobbel single to center in the ninth, which began with a called strikeout of Ketchup and ended with a swinging strikeout of County.
Nick Goodwin was beaned by a Urena pitch in the batting helmet in the third inning but remained in the game. He stole second base but would be stranded there. Bohrofen had a close call in the batter’s box when a pitch grazed the visor of his batting helmet by Tri-City southpaw Leonard Garcia in the ninth. The former Arkansas Razorback was okay and took his base. He was on base three times with two walks. Bohrofen was Vancouver’s first baserunner of the day with a two-out walk in the first.
The C’s had a leadoff free pass by Jackson Hornung and a two-out base on balls by Jaden Rudd in the second but could not bring them in.
The Canadians had a chance to add more runs in the fourth inning against Dust Devils reliever Ryan Langford. A walk to Bohrofen and a flare single to short by Goodwin with two outs were left on base.
Another Vancouver scoring opportunity came on a Goodwin double to left off Garcia with one out in the seventh. Goodwin was doubled off when Hornung flew out to right for a 9-6 double play.
With the blog on a recent hiatus thanks to the four consecutive washouts during the homestand against Spokane, I forgot to point out that my press box colleague/author/podcast K.P. Wee has started a new podcast venture with ‘The C’s Baseball Podcast‘. You can click here to find links to the first three episodes to date or just click the image in the righthand column on the home page under the ‘Friends of C’s Plus Baseball’ heading. Episodes 2 and 3 are really good as K.P. chats with Dasan Brown and Ryan McCarty. The pilot was picked up despite the guest featured in Episode 1. ;D
All the best to 2023 Vancouver Canadians pitcher Leam Mendez after he received his release from the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. The Ciego de Avila, Cuba native came to the Jays as a free agent signing last May 29 after the New York Yankees released him, just over a year after signing him to a free agent deal before the 2022 season. The 6-foot-2 righthander made his way to Vancouver in late August after stints with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays and Low-A Dunedin. His C’s debut came at The Nat on September 2 by pitching three shutout innings against Hillsboro, retiring the first eight me he faced. Mendez made the Canadians postseason roster and picked up a hold by pitching one-third of an inning in Game 1 of the Northwest League final against Everett on September 12. The 24-year-old Mendez was named to the 2024 Opening Day roster for the Canadians but was placed on the injured list on April 5. All the best to Mendez in his future endeavours.
2012 Vancouver Canadians first baseman Art Charles had a game for the ages for the Yucatan Leones in the Mexican League against Querétaro on April 28. The 33-year-old slugger had four homers, two doubles, 15 runs batted in and 20 total bases, The performance came after Charles learned about the passing of his grandfather according to his Instagram post below.
The Canadians and Dust Devils square off Thursday night for the third game of this six-game set. Chris McElvain will be the man on the mound for Vancouver in a 6:30 p.m. start. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Kevin Miranda and Rafael Sánchez are the probable starters for Vancouver on Thursday and Friday.
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