The Vancouver Canadians dropped a 6-5 decision to the Tri-City Dust Devils at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday.
The Dusty Ones took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning. The first pitch by C’s starter Pat Gallagher struck the left knee of Mason Martin to put him on base. Andy Blake moved Martin to third with a groundout to second and came home on a one-out base hit to right field by Werner Blakely. Jorge Ruiz walked before Blakely’s base hit and was able to advance to third but Gallagher stranded Ruiz by getting a shallow fly out to center and a flyout to right from Jadiel Sánchez and Matt Coutney respectively.
Tri-City would tack on two more runs in the fifth. A 2-2 pitch to Ruiz was called ball three instead of strike three by home plate umpire Jabril Geter-Abdullah despite being at knee level across the plate.
Ruiz then doubled to left field on the next pitch and was sent to third on a Blakely 4-3 groundout. Caleb Ketchup delivered an RBI single to left by getting the ball past a drawn-in infield. A Jadiel Sánchez double to left that deflected off the glove got Ketchup over to third, despite Ketchup running back to first initially, perhaps hearing the ball go off Baylor’s glove. A Gallagher wild pitch sent Ketchup out of the bottle and onto the plate. Gallagher fanned Matt Coutney before Chay Yeager was brought in to strike out Kevin Bruggeman.
The Canadians got on the board in the bottom half of the fifth. Glenn Santiago singled over a leaping Ruiz at short for a base hit to left, went to second on a wild pitch with one out and scored on a two-run home run to left by Dasan Brown off Dust Devils starter Chris Clark to make it a one-run game.
A three-run rally with two outs in the sixth gave Vancouver its first lead. Jackson Hornung and Jeff Wehler drew back-to-back walks against Tri-City reliever Willian Suarez. Santiago flared a singled to left to bring home Hornung to even the score at 3-3.
Dylan Rock then drove one out to center field that Blakely did not see. The ball fell behind Blakely and that allowed Wehler and Santiago to score on Rock’s double.
Rock got to third on a wild pitch but Jamari Baylor went down swinging.
The Dust Devils fought back in the seventh as Blakely atoned for his mishap with a leadoff walk against Chay Yeager and raced home on a Ketchup double to right to cut the C’s lead to 5-4. A Sánchez fly out to right got Ketchup over to third and produced a pitching change as Grayson Thurman took over for Yeager. Thurman’s first pitch was lined to center by Coutney to tie things up. Thurman struck out Kevin Brugeman and Martin around a Cam Williams walk to get out of the frame.
Another leadoff walk in the top of the eighth proved costly as Blake got aboard on ball four. Ruiz dropped a bunt that wound up advancing Blake to third. Thurman made a nice throw to just get Ruiz at first but Blake noticed there was nobody covering third base and he grabbed the extra 90 feet. He would have scored when the throw by Baylor from first to third was off the mark. Santiago, covering from short, decoyed Blake by pretending he had the ball and dove for the bag. McCarty wound up getting to the ball in foul territory to make sure Blake did not score.
Unfortunately, Santiago’s heads-up play was for naught as a wild pitch from Thurman allowed Blake to cross the dish with the winning run.
C-Notes
Brown and Jace Bohrofen were put to work by Gallagher in the first inning. Brown ran down a Blakely drive to right center before Bohrofen made an over-the-shoulder catch to haul in a Ketchup fly ball. Gallagher then took a comebacker at the mound from Sánchez to complete the 1-3 putout.
The top of the second saw Gallagher also face the minimum three batters in the second by getting Brugeman to hit into a 4-6-3 double play to eradicate a Coutney single to left. Gallagher ended the inning with a strikeout of Williams.
In the fourth, Gallagher overcame a Coutney base hit to left and a one-out walk to Williams with a strikeout of Brugeman.
Anders Tolhurst turned in a clean ninth inning that featured a punchout of Coutney.
Brown had the first Vancouver hit with a leadoff single in the first and Wehler was the first Canadians batter in scoring position after a two-out walk and a stolen base in the second.
Rock and Baylor—in his first Nat Bailey Stadium plate appearance—worked back-to-back bases on balls to open the third but were stranded after Clark struck out the side.
Vancouver had a chance to grab the lead in the seventh. Tri-City reliever Carlos Espinosa walked Brown to open the inning and Brown went on to steal second. McCarty made a bid for an infield single to short and he looked to have beaten it out but base umpire Tyler Hovick called him out. A wild pitch moved Brown to third before Bohrofen struck out on a foul tip. With Nick Goodwin at the plate, Espinosa bounced a pitch in the dirt that was blocked by Brugeman. Though the ball was only a couple of feet away from the Dust Devils catcher, Brown made a dash for home and Brugeman applied the tag at the third base line. Brugeman lost control of the ball and Brown did not realize it and that allowed Brugeman to retrieve the ball and apply the tag for the third out.
The C’s tried again for the equalizer in the eighth when Wehler earned a two-out free pass from Brady Choban and swiped second. That was as far as Wehler got.
Cam Minacci also issued a two-out base on balls in the ninth when Brown got aboard but he struck out the side to preserve the Tri-City triumph.
2022-2024 Vancouver Canadians pitcher Justin Kelly is no longer with the club as he has earned a promotion to Double-A New Hampshire. The former Utah Ute struck out 22 batters and walked only four in 17-1/3 innings to go along with a 2-1 record, a 2.55 earned run average and three saves. Kelly had the privilege of throwing the final pitch to clinch the C’s first-half playoff berth and the Northwest League championship in 2023. All the best to Justin in Manchester.
In other roster moves, catcher José Ferrer has been activated from the Development List and first baseman Brennan Orf has been moved from the seven-day injured list to the 60-day IL. 2023 C’s first baseman Peyton Williams is back on the field as he is on a rehab assignment with Dunedin.
The Toronto Blue Jays have released 2021-2022 Canadians righthander Alejandro Melean. The Maracaibo, Venezuela native signed with the Jays as a free agent on July 2, 2017. After joining the C’s in the nomadic 2021 season, Melean did get to pitch at Nat Bailey Stadium in 2022 and put up a 2-1 record with a 1.69 ERA while fanning 35 batters in 32 innings, walking only eight. He was promoted to Double-A New Hampshire where he had spent the last three years. Melean was placed on the Development List on May 8 and pitched a scoreless inning in his return on May 26 against Somerset but that was his final outing in the Jays system. The 25-year-old compiled a career line of 13-10 with a 4.71 ERA and 281 strikeouts over 279 innings. All the best to Alejandro in his future endeavours.
Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez saw his autograph appearance postponed due to Tuesday’s rainout but the good news is he will be back at The Nat on Tuesday, September 3.
Lefthander and Mississauga, Ontario native Connor O’Halloran will make his debut for Monty’s Mounties on Thursday. Game time is 7:05 p.m. at Nat Bailey Stadium. Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges will have the broadcast on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Pat Gallagher was at 79-90 miles per hour with strikeouts at 88 and 89. Chay Yeager checked in at 87-97 with a strikeout at 96. Grayson Thurman had strikeouts at 85, 82 and 92. Anders Tolhurst had a strikeout of 90 and reached 95.
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