The Vancouver Canadians finished off their season series with Spokane on a winning note by winning five out of six at Avista Stadium.
The C’s had swept Spokane in six straight games at Nat Bailey Stadium in June and nearly pulled off the sweep again. They also managed to avoid a one-run loss for the second straight series and picked up a one-run win in the process.
Tuesday, August 12 – Vancouver 10 Spokane 3
HR – Keys (13), Arnold (2), 2B – Freethy (2), Micheletti (20), Goodwin 2 (10), 3B – Hernández (1), Cunningham (1), SB – Hernández (1) | Wentworth (W, 3-5) 5IP 0R 9K, Sánchez 2IP 0R 1K
Wednesday, August 13 – Vancouver 6 Spokane 5
HR – Harry (3), 2B – Freethy (3), Duran (3), 3B – Goodwin (1) | Stanifer (W, 2-5) 6IP 2R 4K, Munson 1.2IP 0R, Coleman (SV, 2) 0.2IP 1R
Thursday, August 14 – Vancouver 8 Spokane 6
2B – Freethy (4), Micheletti (21), Cunningham (12), Nimmala (25), SB – Freethy (1), Hernández (2), Harry (4), Goodwin (9), Cunningham (8) | Carter (W, 5-4) 2.1IP 0R 3K
Friday, August 15 – Spokane 6 Vancouver 4
HR – Freethy (1), Keys (14), 2B – Nimmala 2 (27) | McElvain 5IP 2R 1K
Saturday, August 16 – Vancouver 12 Spokane 2
HR – Cunningham (13), 2B – Freethy 2 (6), Hernández (2), 3B – Micheletti (2) | Hechavarria (W, 1-0) 5IP 2R 5K, Holcombe 1IP 0R 3K, Todd 1IP 0R 1K, Vasquez 2IP 0R 3K
Sunday, August 17 – Vancouver 6 Spokane 1
HR – Goodwin (11), Scannell (1), 2B – Cunningham (13), Toman (1), SB – Cunningham (9) | Wentworth (W, 4-5) 6IP 1R 2K, Bonds 1IP 0R 2K, Coleman 1IP 0R 1K, Sánchez 1IP 0R 3K
C-Notes
C’s second baseman JR Freethy won Northwest League Player of the Week honours for August 11-17 after batting .458 with six doubles, one home run and eight runs batted in. The former Nevada Wolf Pack set the tone by reaching base in his first plate appearance for all six games in Spokane, including a leadoff home run on Friday. Freethy reached base six times on Saturday with two doubles, two singles and two walks for a perfect night at the plate.
Freethy is the eighth C’s player to win NWL weekly honours. The others…
- RHP Fernando Perez
- LHP Javen Coleman
- INF Nick Goodwin
- SS Arjun Nimmala
- OF Victor Arias
- INF/OF Adrian Pinto
- OF Eddie Micheletti
That’s in addition to righthander Khal Stephen winning NWL Pitcher of the Month honours in June and infielder Cutter Coffey winning top monthly player plaudits in July.
Jackson Wentworth was 2-0 for the C’s this week and allowed just one run while striking out 11 in 11 innings. Unfortunately, Hillsboro’s Daniel Eagen (the most ruthless Egan I’ve seen since Tommy in Power. Yes, different spelling, but the point is still valid!) won his second straight NWL Pitcher of the Week award. After no-hitting the C’s for seven innings at The Nat on August 8, the 2024 third-round pick of Arizona put up seven more zeroes against Everett in a two-hitter in which he struck out 11.
At least Eagen winning the weekly award is justifiable, more so than his teammate Yordin Chalas and his seven innings of three unearned runs (later changed to earned runs) robbing Stephen of NWL Pitcher of the Week honours back in mid-June. Just like Wentworth, Stephen went 2-0 with 11 punchouts in 11 innings against Spokane.
Tuesday
The C’s had nine extra-base hits in this one with five doubles, two triples and two homers to given them their 14th win in as many tries when scoring 10 or more runs.
Wednesday
The C’s turned their first triple play of the High-A era but another three came into play as in the number of Vancouver batters hit by pitches. Arjun Nimmala was hit by Griffin Herring in the first inning before Sean Keys and Edward Duran took one for the team in the seventh courtesy of the appropriately-named Bryson Hammer. Neither of them scored as a result of the HBP but Nimmala did wind up scoring the eventual winning run in the seventh on a Carter Cunningham fielder’s choice.
Javen Coleman failed to strike out a batter for the first time in 11 appearances but was able to nail down the save in a very eventful ninth. He relieved Bo Bonds who had walked the bases loaded but did get one out when the infield fly rule was called on Andy Perez. There was a whole lot of commotion going on because neither JR Freethy at second base nor Eddie Micheletti could come up with the ball, with the latter trying to make a sliding catch from right field. Coleman took over for Bonds and yielded a run-scoring single to right field but Micheletti threw out Max Belyeu who went too far around second base and Nimmala applied the tag to complete the 9-6 putout. A wild pitch and an Aidan Longwell single to center made it a one-run game but Skyler Messinger popped out to end the game.
Thursday
The C’s were able to turn two double plays, one of them was of the 2-5-2-6-8 variety to end the bottom of the sixth. Spokane had three singles in the frame against Edinson Batista with the first being a leadoff single to center field by Skyler Messinger. That was erased when catcher Jacob Lojewski threw out Messinger trying to steal second on a 2-6 play. A base hit to right by Tommy Hopfe and another to center by Jesus Bugarin put runners at the corners at first and third with one out. Bugarin took off for second base but Lojewski faked a throw to second and threw to third instead where Hopfe had strayed off the bag. That resulted in Hopfe being caught in a rundown between Sean Keys at third and eventually led to Arjun Nimmala tagging out Hopfe. Bugarin was caught in no-man’s land between second and third and Jay Harry from center field tagged out Bugarin after receiving the throw from Nimmala to keep Spokane off the board.
Carter Cunningham—who delivered a pinch-hit RBI double to right in the top of the sixth off Hunter Omlid—scored the winning run in the eighth. He led off the inning with a walk against Cade Denton, stole second base, moved to third on a JR Freethy fly ball to center and scored on an Eddie Micheletti sacrifice fly to center.
Friday
Eddie Micheletti threw out a runner at the plate as he caught a liner off the bat of Blake Wright and threw out Ethan Hedges at home to help C’s starter Chris McElvain limit the damage to one run in the bottom of the third inning.
Micheletti was also hit by a pitch from Bryson Hammer in the eighth inning and came around to score the tying run on a two-out double to left by Arjun Nimmala.
Usually TGIF is a good thing but not necessarily for the C’s who fell to 7-13 on Fridays this season.
Saturday
Tucker Toman was hit by a pitch in his first Northwest League plate appearance by Spokane stater Konner Eaton in the top of the first inning. Eddie Micheletti also wore some rawhide from Angel Perdomo in the second and he would score on Carter Cunningham‘s grand slam.
Matt Scannell drove in two runs with a single to right off Alberto Pacheco in the third inning for his first Northwest League hit and that made it a 10-0 game at the time. Toman also had an RBI single to right in the third for his first NWL hit.
Eight of the 12 runs scored by Vancouver all came with two outs. The C’s also ran their record on Saturdays to 14-4.
Sunday
The C’s managed to win this one despite going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and leaving 12 men on base. The one hit was Matt Scannell‘s three-run home run to right field off Josh Grosz in the third. That was two batters after Nick Goodwin extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a home run to ignite a five-run third inning.
JR Freethy was plunked in the sixth inning and Tucker Toman was drilled in the seventh by Spokane reliever Hunter Omlid.
Vancouver won the season series against Spokane with 17 wins in 27 games.
C-Changes
A pair of Vancouver Canadians were released by the Toronto Blue Jays this past Friday. Outfielder and Grimsby, Ontario native Bryce Arnold and third baseman/catcher Jacob Lowjeski saw their tenure in the Jays system come to an end. Arnold finished last season with the C’s and returned to the club in late June after clubbing nine home runs with an .808 on-base-plus-slugging mark of .808 in 55 games with Low-A Dunedin. The 24-year-old homered last Tuesday in Spokane but batted just .188 in 25 contests with Vancouver. One highlight for Arnold was a game-tying home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with his family in attendance at The Nat on July 25.
Lojewski began his pro career just this season after being signed as a free agent from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2024. The 24-year-old from West Palm Beach, Florida played just 25 games with Dunedin before his promotion to Vancouver on July 29. Lowjeski got into five games with the C’s and had just three hits in 22 at-bats. After making 18 starts as a catcher with Dunedin, his one and only appearance behind the pentagon with Vancouver came in his last game on Thursday in which he singled and scored at Spokane. All the best to Bryce and Jacob in their future endeavours.
The C’s welcomed infielder Tucker Toman and outfielder Matt Scannell from Dunedin. Toman was one of two second-round picks by the Blue Jays in 2022, taken one pick before 2023 C’s infielder Cade Doughty. Hailing from Columbia, South Carolina, Hammond High School product broke through in his fourth pro season, with the majority of his time spent with the D-Jays. The 21-year-old switch-hitter slashed .260/.345/.375 with 17 doubles, one triple, six home runs, 52 RBI and five stolen bases in as many attempts in 86 games this season. The 6-foot-0, 180 pound is wearing number 2 for Monty’s Mounties.
Scannell was a free agent signing from Wake Forest back on July 22 and earned a promotion to Vancouver after just 10 games with Dunedin. The 23-year-old San Antonio, Texas native batted .269/.367/.577 with two doubles, two home runs and five RBI. The 5-foot-11, 205 pound lefthanded hitter is wearing number 8 for the C’s.
Catcher Aaron Parker is back on the seven-day injured list for the third time this season. The last two times saw him return for one game as a designated hitter before going back on the IL again. Hayden Gilliland returns from Dunedin and will wear Parker’s number 6 after wearing number 35 previously. Number 35 is now worn by righthander Brett Garcia.
Around the Jays system, 2019 C’s righthander Alek Manoah was assigned to Triple-A Buffalo on August 13. First baseman Rainer Nuñez (2022) was placed on the Development List and shortstop Josh Kasevich (2023) has been activated by Triple-A Buffalo on August 15. Righthander Justin Kelly (2022-2024) was placed on the seven-day injured list at Double-A New Hampshire on August 17.
Transactions involving former Vancouver Canadians around the majors…
- The Chicago Cubs released infielder Jon Berti (2011) and the Toronto Blue Jays aon August 13.
- The Seattle Mariners recalled lefty Tayler Saucedo (2015) from Triple-A Tacoma and the Milwaukee Brewers recalled outfielder Steward Berroa (2022) on August 15.
- The Minnesota Twins placed outfielder Alan Roden (2023) on the 10-day injured list on August 16 and transferred him to the 60-day injured list on August 17.
- The Pittsburgh Pirates released lefthander Ryan Borucki (2014-2015) on August 18.
C-View
The Canadians are back at Nat Bailey Stadium for their penultimate home stand as they host the Tri-City Dust Devils for a six-game series on Tuesday. Vancouver is hoping for a better showing in front of the home crowd than the last time against the Dust Devils. In one of the most excruciating series since this blog began, the C’s dropped four one-run contests to Dusty’s Devils in late June.
Gage Stanifer gets the starting assignment for Tuesday’s series opener and Sunday’s series closer. Austin Cates, Chris McElvain, Silvano Hechavarria and Jackson Wentworth are listed as the probable starters Wednesday through Saturday. Games times are 7:05 p.m. for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and 1:05 p.m. for Friday and Sunday. All games are on CanadiansBaseball.com and BallySports.com with Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges bringing you the play-by-play.
Discover more from C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog 