The Vancouver Canadians swept a doubleheader against the Tri-City Dust Devils with 1-0 and 4-3 victories at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday.
C’s starter Ryan Jennings and his Double D’s counterpart, lefty Erik Rivera exchanged zeros on the line score for the first five innings in Game 1 of the doubleheader. Vancouver reliever Anders Tolhurst and Tri-City reliever Jared Southard did likewise in the sixth before Tolhurst put up another scoreless frame in the seventh. Southard was back out for the bottom of the seventh and issued a leadoff walk to Estiven Machado. A base hit to left field by Dasan Brown and a fly out to right by Ryan McCarty advanced Machado to third. That brought Jace Bohrofen to the plate and he hit a chopper to second that Caleb Ketchup fielded. Despite putting all the mustard he could on the throw home, Machado got a tremendous jump on contact and scored the winning run. The play went down as a fielder’s choice RBI by Bohrofen.
Game 2 saw the Canadians score in their first at-bat. Dasan Brown worked a leadoff walk against Dust Devils lefty Leonard Garcia. A stolen base with two outs by Brown wreaked havoc on the Tri-City defence as Caleb Pendleton‘s throw sailed into center field. Werner Blakely overran the ball in the middle patch and Brown turned on the jets to score the game’s first run.
Vancouver expanded its lead against Tri-City reliever Ryan Langford in the fourth. Nick Goodwin sent a laser into the left field porch for a solo home run with one out. The ball left the yard at 100 miles per hour and travelled 357 feet. Jackson Hornung followed with a single to right, ran to second on a Dylan Rock single to right and scored on a Glenn Santiago bloop single up the middle. A Jean Arnaez base knock to left loaded the bases and Machado produced a sacrifice fly to right to drive in Hornung to put Vancouver ahead by four.
After being stymied by Vancouver starter Chris McElvain for the first six innings, the Dust Devils broke through in the top of the seventh against Rafael Ohashi. A broken-bat base hit to right by Andy Blake over the head of Santiago at second got things started. A Caleb Ketchup walk and a Hornung passed ball sent Werner Blakely to the plate and he singled to right to drive in Blake. That was the first run Ohashi surrendered in relief this year.
Grayson Thurman—who did warm up in the bullpen in the late going of Game 1—was brought into the game but gave up a Matt Coutney double to center to bring in Ketchup and Blakely. Thurman struck out Mason Martin and got Kevin Bruggeman to ground out to short which resulted in Martin making it to third. Pendleton walked before Yadiel Sánchez pinch-hit for Joe Stewart. He was retired on a comebacker that Thurman knocked down before recovering to toss the ball to first to complete Vancouver’s doubleheader sweep.
C-Notes
Jennings gave up an infield single to short by Ketchup to start the first inning. A wild pitch with one out and a fly out to center field by Matt Coutney where Brown ranged over to right-center to haul it in to put Ketchup at third. Jadiel Sánchez flew out to right to end the frame.
Cam Williams walked with two outs in the second but Jennings struck out Andy Blake before the walk and eventually got out of the inning.
Jorge Ruiz had a leadoff walk in the third and took off for second base but Werner Blakely was called for batter interference when Jommer Hernández tried to throw out Ruiz. Ketchup struck out and despite a Coutney single to center that took a bad hop in front of Machado at short, Jennings retired Sánchez with another fly out to center that Brown vacuumed up with tremendous range.
Mason Martin drew a walk to start the fourth and stole second after Williams whiffed for the second out but Jennings retired Ronaldo Flores on a fly ball to left. In the fifth, Ruiz singled to right to lead things off but Santiago chased down a foul ball just in front of the wall in left field for the first out and caught another fly ball off the bat of Ketchup for the second out. Ruiz stole second and got to third on a wild pitch. Matt Coutney got aboard with a walk but Jennings got Sánchez for the third out of an inning for the third time by getting a pop out to first.
Tolhurst struck out Martin and Blake on foul tips to start the sixth and stranded a Williams base knock to left. He worked a spotless seventh and was rewarded with the victory.
The first Vancouver baserunner was Jeff Wehler who reached on a fielding error by Williams at second with one out in the bottom of the second.
Machado was the first C’s hitter to reach base safely with a one-out walk in the third. Ruiz nearly made a diving catch in left but McCarty got a base hit. Ruiz’s throwing error sent Machado to third but Rivera struck out Bohrofen to leave runners on the corners.
Glenn Santiago had a two-out free pass and got to Santiago on a Flores passed ball but Jamari Baylor was caught looking at strike three in the bottom of the fourth.
The C’s nearly broke through in the fifth. Machado doubled off the short left field fence near the corner with one out and was held up at third when Brown singled to right. Sánchez got to the ball quickly and C’s manager Brent Lavallee gave the stop sign to Machado. That happened just a split second before Sánchez bobbled the ball. Machado may have scored if he was given the green light. Despite Lavallee exercising understandable caution, McCarty struck out and Bohrofen lined out to center to leave the runners on.
Vancouver staged what appeared to be a promising rally when Jackson Hornung and Wehler had back-to-back singles to center and right respectively. Santiago dropped down a bunt up the first base line to advance the runners another 90 feet but Baylor and Hernández grounded out to second against Southard.
McElvain worked around a leadoff walk to Ketchup in the first inning. Blakely laid down a bunt down to third to get Ketchup over to second but Coutney struck out and Martin fouled out behind the plate.
Bruggeman was called out on strikes in the top of the second by McElvain. A two-out walk to Stewart did not go anywhere for Tri-City.
A couple of two-out walks by Blakely and Coutney in the fourth were stranded by McElvain he struck out Blake, Ketchup and Martin.
In the top of the fifth, McElvain took a comebacker off his right foot that resulted in a one-out single by Blake but was able to remain in the game and complete the frame..
The sixth was a difficult inning for McElvain. It started well with a strikeout of Coutney but a Martin walk, a Bruggeman base hit to center and an infield knock to third by Pendleton loaded the bases. McElvain bent but did not break as he got Stewart to line out to second and Ruiz to foul out to third.
Rock was baserunner number one for Vancouver with a one-out walk in the second. Brown earned a free pass against Dust Devils reliever Ryan Langford with two outs in the third but was also stranded.
Bohrofen broke out of an 0-for-29 skid with a double off the base of the wall in right field against lefty Dylan Phillips, a former Kansas State college team of C’s infielder Nick Goodwin.
Rafael Sánchez is up next in the Canadians rotation. He will throw the first pitch at 1:05 p.m. Saturday. The game will be carried on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges on the play-by-play.
The C’s played 14 innings on Friday (technically 13-1/2) so it was only fitting that the Blue Jays played 14 innings as well. 2019 and 2021-2022 Canadian Davis Schneider walked it off with a two-run home run as Toronto dumped the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 at the Dome.
Radar Gun Rundown
Ryan Jennings was at 84-98 miles per hour with strikeouts of 96, 97, 93 and 85. Anders Tolhurst had two whiffs at 88 and 97. Chris McElvain had Ks of 93, 83, 89, 90 and 90. Rafael Ohashi checked in from 80-93. Grayson Thurman registered a strikeout at 84 and was up to 92.
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