The Vancouver Canadians blanked the Tri-City Dust Devils 4-0 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday.
The Canadians scored first in the second inning, courtesy of a home run by Jay Harry. The former Penn State product ripped the first pitch he saw in the Northwest League off Dust Devils starter Kethel Key over the right field wall. The two-out blast stayed fair down the right field foul pole gave Vancouver a 1-0 advantage.
The insurance came in the eighth when Dasan Brown worked a one-out walk off Tri-City reliever Ryan Langford. Back-to-back doubles by Cutter Coffey and Peyton Williams to left and center field respectively with the latter’s wall-ball banger scoring Brown and Coffey to put the C’s up by three. Christian Young was brought in for Langford and gave up a deep fly ball to the right field corner by Jace Bohrofen which moved Williams to third base. Jackson Hornung smacked a double to right to drive in Williams for the final run of the game.
Grant Rogers was stellar in his Northwest League debut by pitching eight shutout innings. Grayson Thurman put up the final goose egg in the ninth.
C-Notes
Rogers was outstanding, there’s no two ways about it. He struck out Caleb Ketchup swinging and Werner Blakely looking to finish a perfect first inning. Coffey took away a hit by ranging well to his left from his shortstop position to retire Kevin Bruggeman in the second, an inning which ended with a Juan Flores strikeout.
Mac McCroskey blooped a single to right field with one out in the third inning for Tri-City’s first hit but Rogers still faced just three batters as Landon Wallace was called out on strikes and Nic Deschamps threw out McCroskey at second on a 2-4 caught stealing.
Rogers kept mowing the Dust Devils down in the fourth with a punchout of Blakely to end a shutout fourth. A Sonny DiChiara single to left to start the fifth was erased on a 5-4-3 double play by Bruggeman before Flores struck out to end another three-batter frame.
Three straight groundouts got Rogers through the sixth and he struck out Ketchup in the middle of another three-up, three-down inning in the seventh.
Bruggeman singled to right field with one away in the eighth. Rogers struc out Flores but Bruggman got to third after stealing second when Nic Deschamps‘ throw from behind the plate was off the mark. Arol Vera walked even though the pitch from Rogers caught the edge of the strike zone according to TrackMan. However, the 6-foot-7 righthander from McNeese State stranded the potential tying and go-ahead runs at the corners by striking out McCroskey.
With Victor Arias in left field after pinch-running for Hornung, Goodwin taking over at third base and De La Rosa moving to right field to replace Orf, Grayson Thurman was brought in for the ninth. He struck out Wallace looking before giving up a double to Placencia. A Ketchup groundout to short moved Placencia to second but Blakely went down swinging to end the game.
Brennan Orf followed Harry’s homer with a walk in the second inning and was at second base after a wild pitch but was left stranded.
Marcos De La Rosa singled to right but was cut down by Wallace on a 9-6 putout at second.
A Williams walk was erased when Bohrofen lined into a 4-3 double play in the fourth. Hornung singled to right but that was it for the C’s in that frame.
In the seventh, Bohrofen led off with a walk and Hornung singled to right but Langford rallied to strike out the side.
The series finale goes at 1:05 p.m. Sunday at The Nat. Carson Pierce will take the pill for Vancouver. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Radar Gun Rundown
Grant Rogers was at 80-93 miles per hour with strikeouts at 91, 86, 82, 82, 82, 92, 81 and 83. Grayson Thurman had a strikeout at 82 and was up to 91.
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