The Vancouver Canadians were upended by the Everett AquaSox 6-2 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Thursday.
C’s starter Ryan Jennings and his Frogs counterpart Brandyn Garcia traded zeros in the first three innings. Jennings returned serve with a shutout fourth but Garcia could not do the same. With two outs, Dasan Brown deposited a ball just over the short left field fence into the Vancouver bullpen to put the home side ahead 1-0.
After another scoreless frame by Jennings in the fifth, the AquaSox would get to the Vancouver bullpen in the sixth. A leadoff walk to Bill Knight by Josh Mollerus started the trouble. After Axel Sánchez struck out, Hunter Fitz-Gerald singled to right and Andrew Miller doubled down the left field line to score Knight. Fitz-Gerald would tag up from third and score on a Brock Rodden sacrifice fly to right to put Everett ahead 2-1.
The AquaSox added on to their advantage against Chay Yeager in the seventh. Yeager—who handled a comebacker to the mound on his first pitch to Josh Hood to finish off the sixth—walked Ben Williamson with one out. A steal of second and a 3-1 groundout by R.J. Schreck to third got Williamson over to third. Williamson was hurt on the play and was visited by the Everett training staff. He remained in the game for a bit but he eventually left after a Knight walk. Gabriel Moncada came in to pinch-run at third base and he was not there for long as Sánchez ripped the next pitch for a hit up the middle to score the third Everett run. A Jackson Hornung passed ball allowed Sánchez to take second. Fitz-Gerald then singled to right to score Knight and Sánchez to make it 5-1 Everett.
Lefty Naswell Paulino finished the seventh but he did not get away scot-free in the eighth. A single to left and.a steal of second from Rodden started the innings. One out later, jared Sundstrom also walked and swiped second before Moncada walked to load the bases. Knight then walked with two outs to force in the sixth Everett run as Rodden crossed the plate.
Vancouver had the last run of the game as Glenn Santiago homered to left-center off Allan Saathoff to open the ninth.
C-Notes
Jennings gave up a leadoff single to Rodden to start the game and walked Williamson and Schreck with two outs. Despite a pitch clock violation that resulted in ball four to Schreck, Jennings got Knight to pop out to first to leave the bases loaded.
The second inning began with Jennings striking out Sánchez and eventually stranding a one-out double to left-center by Fitz-Gerald. The third inning saw Jennings strand another one-out double by Jared Sundstrom.
Jennings was trying to get a 1-2-3 fourth and struck out Knight to start the inning. Jean Arnaez overran a ball in foul territory on the first base side from Sánchez. Arnawz was charged with an error after the ball glanced off his glove and Sánchez would go on to double to left and steal third base. Sánchez was kept 90 feet away from the plate as Jennings fanned Fitz-Gerald before retiring Miller on a pop out to first.
Everett threatened again in the top of the fifth with a one-out rally in which Hood singled to left and Sundstrom doubled down the left field line to put runners at second and third. Williamson fouled out to first before Schreck hit a sinking liner that was caught by Santiago in left with a headlong dive for the third out.
Next to Jennings, the best pitching line of the night was turned in by Rafael Ohashi. He retired the final four Everett hitters in order, including a strikeout of Miller in the ninth.
Ryan McCarty drilled a double down the left field line for the C’s first hit of the night with one out in the bottom of the first and Nick Goodwin followed with a walk but Vancouver could not put the ball in play for the rest of the inning.
Dylan Rock and Santiago had back-to-back walks in the second inning and moved up a base when Estiven Machado nearly beat out a chopper to the mound up the third base side before being retired 1-3 for the second out.
Another scoring opportunity for the C’s arose in the third when Hornung and Jeff Wheeler walked and Goodwin was hit by a pitch above the right foot. Base umpire Tyler Hovick—not home plate umpire Jabril Geter-Abdulah—ruled that Goodwin did wear the baseball and that prompted a visit from Everett manager Ryan Scott. Things would work out for the AquaSox again as the C’s could not capitalize.
The bottom of the fifth ended in controversy. Wehler hit a tapper to the mound back to Garcia but replays on MiLB.TV showed that Wehler won the foot race to the first base bag after a near collision. Wehler was not happy with the call as he stared daggers at base umpire Hovick.
Shaddon Peavyhouse had a 1-2-3 sixth before Chris Jefferson came on in relief for Everett in the seventh. He was greeted with a double off the right field wall by Machado before retiring the side in order. Stefan Raeth also set down the side without incident in the eighth before giving the ball to Saathoff in the ninth. Machado nearly followed Santiago’s homer with one of his own but he had to settle for his second straight double after the ball went off the right field wall.
Machado hit a couple of wall bangers to right field in the seventh and ninth innings. His seventh inning extra-base.
Canadians manager Brent Lavallee was ejected by the home plate umpire after the sixth inning.
Brown has decided to go with Marvin Gaye and ‘Let’s Get It On’ as his first at-bat walk-up music. The Oakville, Ontario native was able to get it on in the fourth with his third home run of the season.
Chris McElvain is next up in the C’s rotation as he gets the ball in a 1:05 p.m. start at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday. Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
The Toronto Blue Jays have released 2018 Canadians pitcher Fitz Stadler. The 6-foot-9 hurler was drafted by Toronto in the 19th round back out of Arizona State in 2018. After a stint with the Bluefield Blue Jays, Stadler made his way to Vancouver and split four decisions with a 2.22 ERA over 24-13 innings which he struck out 22 batters and recorded six holds. He climbed the ladder to Lansing in 2019 before spllitng time in New Hampshire and Buffalo in 2021. The righthander did secure a non-roster invite to spring training in 2022 but was sidelined with Tommy John surgery. 2023 saw Stadler pitch for Dunedin and New Hampshire with a stint in the Arizona Fall League and made it back to Buffalo for 2024. The 27-year-old was placed on the Development List to start the year before making three appearances for the Herd. The Jays then released Stadler on May 7. All the best to Fitz in his future endeavours.
2011 Canadians pitcher Aaron Sánchez is back in the Blue Jays system after signing a minor league deal. The 31-year-old righthander was in the Minnesota Twins and Arizona Diamondbacks systems last year. Sánchez made his MLB debut with Toronto in 2015 and remained a Blue Jay until he was traded to Houston for outfielder Derek Fisher in 2019. Other major league stops for Sánchez were San Francisco in 2021 and Washington and Minnesota in 2022.
Radar Gun Rundown
Ryan Jennings was at 82-98 miles per hour and recorded strikeouts at 84, 82 and 95. Josh Mollerus had a strikeout of 83 and was up to 94. Chay Yeager was in the 87-99 range, Naswell Paulino checked in at 78-92 and Rafael Ohashi was at 80-92 with a strikeout at 82.
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