The Vancouver Canadians completed a six-game sweep of the Hillsboro Hops with a 4-2 victory at Nat Bailey Stadium on Sunday.
The C’s got to Hops starter Jacob Steinmetz in the bottom of the third inning. Jommer Hernández poked a single to center field, went to third on an Estiven Machado double to right and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Je’Von Ward. Machado was thrown out trying to steal third on ball four to Jace Bohrofen for the second out. Peyton Williams lined a single to left and Jackson Hornung walked to load the bases. Nick Goodwin also heard ball four and that scored Bohrofen to make it 2-0 C’s.
Vancouver added a third run in the fifth inning against Landon Sims. A one-out double to right field by Bohrofen would come around to score on a Williams base knock to the nine-spot.
Hillsboro would solve Vancouver starter Rafael Sánchez in the sixth. Three straight singles by Gavin Logan, Jack Hurley and Jean Walters—the former to left field and the latter two to right—loaded the bases. Gavin Conticello hit into a 4-6 fielder’s choice to score Logan. Sánchez limited the damage there as Kevin Sim lined out to second before striking out Junior Franco.
The Hops drew closer in the seventh when Manny Peña led off with a single to left off Sánchez. Wyatt Crenshaw struck out but Sánchez was done after Juan Corniel drilled a double off the wall in right field. Chay Yeager gave up a run-scoring groundout to short by Logan but ended the inning by getting Hurley to fly out to left.
The Canadians matched that run in the bottom of the seventh. Machado walked and raced to third on a Bohrofen double before tagging up to score on a Williams fly ball to right.
After Yeager retired all five hitters he faced, Naswell Paulino was brought in for the ninth. He walked Peña with one out before finishing the game with a strikeout of Corniel to get the save.
C-Notes
Sánchez stranded a two-out single to right by Conticello by striking out Hurley and Sim to begin and end the first inning and fanned Crenshaw to cap off a perfect second. The Cuban hurler bookended the third with whiffs of Corniel and Hurling and fanned Corniel again to end the fifth after a Peña one-out base hit to center.
Vancouver hit into two double plays in the first two innings. A Ward leadoff single to right field and a Goodwin base knock to center were nullified by the 4-6-3 and 6-4-3 twin killings.
The Everett AquaSox will be at Nat Bailey Stadium for a Canada Day matchup. Lazaro Estrada will let the first pitch fly at 1:05 p.m. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Josh Mollerus throws his final pitch with Vancouver, a fly ball to center to get the save against Hillsboro on Saturday.
C-Changes
The Toronto Blue Jays traded 2024 C’s reliever Josh Mollerus to the Texas Rangers in exchange for fellow righthander Yerry Rodriguez. The 24-year-old San Francisco native ended his tenure with Vancouver by earning a save in his last three appearances, including a save of Saturday’s game against the Hops. A 10th round pick of the Blue Jays in 2023, Mollerus whittled down his earned run average to 3.90 and struck out 44 batters against 19 walks in 30 innings. In the month of June, he had a 1.42 ERA. All the best to the former Oregon Duck and San Francisco Don with the Rangers organization.
Coming up from Low-A Dunedin is Toronto’s third-round pick in 2023, righthander Juaron Watts-Brown. The 22-year-old from Visalia, California did not pitch in 2023 after being taken from Oklahoma State. The 6-foot-3, 190-pound hurler made his pro debut this season with Dunedin where he went 3-5 with a 3.43 ERA in 57-2/3 innings and posted a 74-29 K/BB total.
Radar Gun Rundown
Rafael Sánchez was at 82 miles per hour with strikeouts of 88, 86, 89, 95, 89, 90 and 95. Chay Yeager was at 96-99 and was at 79-90.
C-Tweets
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