The Vancouver Canadians ran over the Eugene Emeralds and backed over them again 19-2 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday.
The C’s grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning off Joe Whitman. Adrian Pinto started things off with a triple to right field and scored on a Peyton Williams sacrifice fly to center.
It was 2-0 C’s in the second when Jacob Sharp started the frame with a double to center. Two fly ball outs—one by Nick Goodwin to center and the other by Je’Von Ward—brought Sharp home.
Vancouver went up 3-0 in the fifth on the strength of three consecutive hits to start the inning. Goodwin singled to left field, Ward doubled to right and Victor Arias drove in Goodwin with a base hit to center.
Trent Harris was brought in to pitch the sixth inning for the Emeralds and it did not go well for him. He was greeted by a Williams home run to right-center field. Cutter Coffey singled to right with one-out and he trotted home on a Sharp homer to left-center to put the C’s ahead 6-0. A two-out walk by Ward forced Harris’ exit from the game. Lefty Matt Mikulski gave up consecutive singles to Arias (center field) and Pinto (right field) to give Vancouver a converted touchdown lead.
In the seventh, Williams led off again with a home rn off Mikulski to right field to make it 8-0 C’s. To sum up the night for the Emeralds, Jackson Hornung and Coffey followed Williams’ second blast with back-to-back walks and Goodwin hit a one-out pop-up to shallow right field that landed safely on the green to score Hornung for Vancouver’s ninth run. Austin Strickland took over for Mikulski and things got only worse for Eugene. An Arias bases-loaded walk helped Vancouver reach double digits. A Jace Bohrofen RBI single and a Hornung two-run knock, both to left field, produced three of the four runs to close out the seven-run seventh to put the C’s up by 14.
Not surprisingly, Emeralds manager Jeremiah Knackstedt elected to bring in catcher Thomas Gavello to pitch the eighth inning and save the rest of his pitching staff to fight another day. Vancouver would put together a one-out rally that included an Arias RBI single to center, a Pinto RBI double to right, a Bohrofen RBI single to right, a Williams RBI single to center and a Coffey bases-loaded walk to add five more runs to the C’s tally.
The Emeralds broke the shutout emphatically when Jonah Cox—who robbed Coffey of a hit with a diving catch in center in the fourth inning—made a huge impact with the bat by crushing a ball to left field to start off the ninth inning. Scott Bandura singled to left and scampered home on a Bryce Eldridge double off the wall in center to plate Bandura for the game’s final run.
Pat Gallagher got the win with five shutout innings and Ryan Watson got the save by finishing the final four frames.
C-Notes
Two Vancouver Canadians pitchers were recognized by the Northwest League before Tuesday’s game. Righthander Grant Rogers was named the NWL Pitcher of the Week for July 29-August 4 after shutting out the Tri-City Dust Devils for eight innings on Saturday in which he struck out nine. The NWL Pitcher of the Month for July went to righthander Alex Amalfi. He posted a 0.55 earned run average and allowed just seven singles over 16-1/3 innings with a 24-4 strikeout/walk total and one save.
The Emeralds made a bid to score first against Gallagher. Quinn McDaniel reached second base on a Coffey throwing error at third with one out and got to third on an Eldridge ground out to second. Sabin Ceballos hit a sinking liner to left but Ward robbed him of a hit with a full-extension dive to rob Ceballos of an RBI.
Gallagher struck out Rodolfo Nolasco in a perfect second inning and got help from his batterymate Sharp to end the third and fourth innings. Sharp threw out a Jonah Cox one-out single on a steal attempt and nailed Ceballos at second as well in the fourth right after Charlie Szykowny went down swinging. The Em’s had two runners on in the fourth after a one-out knock to center by Eldridge.
The punctuation of Gallagher’s five innings came wiht a strikeout of Cole Foster to end a 1-2-3 frame.
Watson struck out Bandura in a perfect sixth and began a perfect seventh with whiffs of Eldrige and Ceballos, the latter of the caught looking variety. A spotless eighth saw Watson fan Luke Shliger and Foster to end the inning.
The C’s and Em’s square off again at the Nat on Wednesday. Jauron Watts-Brown will fire the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. on Canadians Baseball and MiLB.TV.
C-Changes
Oakville, Ontario native Dasan Brown was promoted to Double-A New Hampshire. The clue of his call-up came Sunday when he was replaced by Victor Arias in center field in the ninth inning of the series finale against Tri-City. The 22-year-old Brown slashed .257/.363/.411 with Monty’s Mounties this season to go along with eight homers, 25 extra-base hits and 22 stolen bases. He played 221 games with Vancouver since the 2022 season and was a member of the 2023 Northwest League championship squad. All the best to the “Oakville Flash”.
On the flip side, catcher Jommer Hernández was released by the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. Like Brown, Hernández had been with the Canadians since 2022 and appeared in 128 games over that time, earning a championship ring in 2023. The 23-year-old Dominican batted .242/.318/.363 this season with one homer and 12 RBI and threw out 36 percent of baserunners trying to steal. He had been out with a back injury but was never placed on the injured list. Here’s hoping Jommer will catch on with another squad. All the best to Jommer in his future endeavours.
Joining the team is righthander Ryan Watson from Low-A Dunedin. The 25-year-old from Atlanta, Georgia was signed as a free agent by the Blue Jays on May 31. He joined the Florida Complex League Blue Jays before being bumped up to Dunedin where he put up a 3.06 ERA in 17-2/3 innings, striking out 16 and walking four. The 6-foot-3, 204-pound hurler was with the Georgia State Panthers from 2019-2023 and the Florence Y’Alls of the independent Frontier League last season and this season. He is wearing number 14, last worn by infielder Estiven Machado.
Also joining the club is infielder Adrian Pinto, The Venezuelan was acquired from the Colorado Rockies by the Blue Jays with outfielder Ramiel Tapia in a deal that saw outfielder Randal Grichuk head to Denver back on March 24, 2022. The 21-year-old was on a rehab stint in which he spent time at the FCL and Dunedin before reporting to Vancouver. Pinto got in nine games total where he batted .471 with a homer at the FCL before batting .333 with Dunedin. The left-handed hitter is wearing number 7, previously worn by infielder Jeff Wehler.
Righthander Geison Urbaez is off the injured list and is back with the C’s. He began the year with Vancouver and put up a 3.09 ERA in 23-1/3 innings in which he struck out 18 batters and walked 12. He had been rehabbing with Dunedin since July. The 24-year-old Dominican who checks in at 6-foot-1, 180 pounds will resume wearing number 36.
Radar Gun Rundown
Pat Gallagher had three strikeouts of 88 miles per hour and was at 79-90. Ryan Watson recorded strikeouts at 89, 89, 87, 88, 80 and 82 and was up to 93.
C-Tweets
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