C’s Recap – Rojas is Boss! ‘Ken’ + Bullpen Get Canadians Back in Win Column Against Hops – C's Plus Baseball

The Vancouver Canadians held on for a 2-1 victory over the Hillsboro Hops at Hillsboro Ballpark on Friday.

The Canadians got their first baserunner and run in the fourth inning against Hops starter Evan Short. A fielding error by Manny Peña at second base allowed Dasan Brown to get to first base. A Jackson Hornung walk and a Peyton Williams ground ball to first got Brown over to third. Brown tested the arm of Gavin Conticello on a shallow fly to right field by Jace Bohrofen. Conticello’s throw was just up the first base line as Brown scored on a headfirst slide to barely beat Lyle Lin’s tag at the plate to give Vancouver a 1-0 advantage.

The Hops would even the score in the bottom of the fifth against C’s starter Kendry Rojas. A couple of one-out singles by Christian Cerda and Junior Franco and a bunt single by Wildred Patiño to Rojas loaded the bases. With two outs, Peña hit a chopper that took Rojas near the third base bag where he tried to make a diving tag on Franco but the lefthander could not hang on the ball. That allowed Cerda to cross the plate with the tying run.

The Canadians chased Short from the game with a leadoff single to right field by Brennan Orf in the top of the eighth inning. With Zane Russell on the hill, pinch-runner Marcos De La Rosa stole second with one out and made it to third on an Estiven Machado groundout to first. Russell uncorked a wild pitch to allow De La Rosa to score the winning run.

C-Notes

The C’s pitching staff did the heavy lifting in this one. Rojas went a solid six innings and his defensive acumen was put to the test in the first. He handled a Peña comebacker to the mound and started a 1-4-3 double play off the bat of Gino Groover to erase a Jose Fernandez single to left.

Rojas bookended the second with called strikeouts of Conticello and Cerda and stranded a two-out Gavin Logan base hit to left in the third by striking out Patiño looking and Peña swinging. Another Groover double play ball—this one of the 6-4-3 variety—erased another Fernandez base knock in a three-batter fourth. Rojas finished strong by fanning Conticello and Tommy Troy to end a perfect sixth.

Chay Yeager struck out Cerda and Patiño to begin and end a perfect seventh and wound up with the win. Johnathan Lavallee got the hold by completing a perfect eighth. He struck out Peña and got some help from Bohrofen who made a sliding catch against the wall in foul territory along right field on a Fernandez fly ball to end the inning.

Conor Larkin nailed it down with a spotless ninth, ending it with strikeouts of Conticello and Troy for the save.

The C’s did not get their first hit until Robert Brooks led off the fifth inning with a single to center. Vancouver’s other two hits came in the eighth on the aforementioned Orf base knock and Brown’s single to right after the Russell wild pitch. Brown stole second base but would not go any further.

Nick Goodwin drew a two-out walk in the seventh for the second and final free pass for the C’s.

Rafael Sánchez will get the start for Vancouver in another 7:05 p.m. start at Hillsboro Ballpark. CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV will have the broadcast for you.

Congratulations to 2022 Vancouver Canadians outfielder Steward Berroa for scoring his first major league run. He pinch-ran for Justin Turner in the ninth inning, stole second and eventually scored on an Ernie Clement walk-off single as the Toronto Blue Jays walked off the Texas Rangers 6-5 at the Dome on Friday. Two other members of the 2022 C’s squad also played a role in the win. Leo Jiménez had an RBI single among his two hits, scoring Davis Schneider who had a 1-for-3 night. 2019 and 2021 Canadians first baseman Spencer Horwitz had a two-run double and a walk.