The Vancouver Canadians hammered the Spokane Indians 19-2 in Game 1 before prevailing 4-2 in Game 2 at Avista Stadium on Sunday.
Alan Roden led off the game with a walk against Spokane starter Brayan Castillo but Andrés Sosa hit into a 4-3 double play to foil that rally.
Vancouver starter Devereaux Harrison had to deal with a one-out rally when Benny Montgomery singled to center field and Jordan Beck walked but he retired Yanquiel Fernandez and Braxton Fulford on a pair of fly balls for the second and third outs.
Cade Doughty began the top of the second with a base hit to left but that was all Castillo would allow. Ben Sems drew a one-out walk and stolen second but Harrison struck out Nic Kent before getting Braiden Ward to line out to first.
The C’s offence erupted in a big way in the third inning. Dasan Brown ignited the rally with a leadoff walk and went to third on a Garrett Spain single to right field. Then the C’s put the quarter in the carousel.
- Roden doubled to right, Brown scored
- Sosa singled to center, Spain scored
- Nuñez singled to right, Roden scored
- Kasevich singled to left, Nuñez scored
The 3-0 lead was the appetizer. After Michael Turconi walked with one out to load the bases, the C’s continued to harness in the good energy.
- Alex De Jesus singled to center, Sosa scored
- Josh Kasevich singled to left, Nuñez scored
- Brown hit by pitch, Turconi scored
Even with two outs and a 6-0 lead, Roden drew a bases-loaded walk to score De Jesus for Vancouver’s seventh run. That was it for Castillo but Mason Green fared no better as the C’s kept feeling the flow.
- Sosa walked, Kasevich scored
- Nuñez walked, Brown scored
The C’s would stay on the horse as Doughty drilled a grand slam to left-center field to plate Roden, Sosa and Nuñez to make it 13-zip Vancouver.
Spokane got two of those runs back in the bottom of the third when Adael Amador doubled to right and scored on a Montgomery two-run homer to right-center. Harrison yielded a one-out base hit by Fernandez but he would limit the Spokane uprising to two runs.
Vancouver made it two converted touchdowns when De Jesus singled to right, went to third on a Kasevich base hit to right and scored on a 4-6-3 double play ball from Brown.
Cooper Benson worked the bottom of the fourth for Vancouver and worked around a hit by pitch to Sems and a two-out walk to Amador.
A Sosa single to left was all the C’s managed in the top of the fifth against while Benson whiffed Fernandez in the midst of a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth.
After Green retired the Canadians in order in the top half of the sixth, Benson gave up a leadoff single to center by Zach Kokoska and a one-out base hit to right by Kent before putting up a scoreless sixth of his own.
Vancouver went up, down and around on the carousel again in the seventh when Brown doubled to center and Spain smacked a two-run homer to left off Luis Amoroso to make it a 16-2 game. Roden had a base hit to right before Sosa was plunked on the batting helmet but he was able to stay in the game. A wild pitch and a Doughty single to left scored Roden and Sosa for runs 17 and 18. Turconi’s single to center got Doughty over to third and he would score on a De Jesus sac fly to left.
Conor Larkin finished the game with a 1-2-3 seventh inning to cap off the C’s 17-run victory, which goes to Benson who is now 4-0 on the campaign. All good things.
With the Canadians getting the final at-bat in Game 2, they looked to take a first-inning lead against Spokane starter Evan Shawver. Garrett Spain doubled to right field with one out and tried to score on a two-out infield single to third by Cade Doughty that handcuffed Ben Sems but Spokane first baseman Zach Kokoska wound up with the ball and threw out Spain at the plate to keep the C’s from drawing first blood.
Kokoska got Spokane’s first hit of the game with a one-out base hit to center in the second inning but Vancouver starter Eric Pardinho still faced the minimum after two innings as he coaxed a 4-3 double play from Juan Guerrero.
Another double play happened at the beginning of the bottom of the second when a Gabby Martinez walk was nullified by a Devonte Brown 4-3 double play. Alex De Jesus kept the inning going with a two-out double to center and Jommer Hernández drew a walk. Dasan Brown then blooped a single to center to cash in De Jesus and Hernández to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead.
Spokane would cut the C’s lead in half when Sems worked a leadoff walk against Pardinho. Aiverson Rodriguez grounded to short but Sems still got into scoring position on the play. A Hernández passed ball and an infield single to second by Bryant Quijada scored Sems to make it a 2-1 game. Hernández would throw out Quijada trying to steal second on a 2-4 play to erase the final baserunner of the inning.
The C’s had a chance to pad their lead in the bottom of the third against Tyler Ras when Rainer Nuñez and Doughty singled to left and center respectively and Devonte Brown drew a one-out walk to load the bases. Ras struck out De Jesus looking and retired Hernández on a fly ball to right on the next pitch to leave the bags loaded.
Justin Kelly relieved Pardinho in the fourth and sandwiched a Yanquiel Fernandez walk with strikeouts of Benny Montgomery and Jordan Beck. Kokosa kept the inning going with an infield single to first and Guerrero walked to load the bases but Kelly struck out the side by getting Sems swinging to preserve Vancouver’s one-run lead.
Estiven Machado reached first on an error by Rodriguez at second to start the bottom of the fourth. He stole second base but would not make any further progress on the basepaths.
Abdiel Mendoza made a successful return from the seven-day injured list by overcoming a two-out walk to Adael Amador with three ground ball outs to wrap up the top of the fifth.
Monty’s Mounties came up with some insurance in the fifth. Doughty took Juan Mejia‘s second pitch to center field for a double and he came around to score on a Sems throwing error at third on a Martinez ground ball to make it 3-1 Vancouver. Martinez made it to second on the play and moved up to third on a two-out wild pitch before reaching home on a De Jesus sacrifice fly center. Hernández and Machado were both plunked before Mejia put an end to the rally.
T.J. Brock was called into the game for the C’s to work the sixth. He walked Fernandez and wild-pitched him over to second before striking out Beck looking. Kokoska grounded out to second to push Fernandez to third but a Guerrero double to right scored Fernandez and brought the potential tying run to the plate in Sems but Brock struck out him to keep the C’s ahead by two.
The C’s opened the bottom of the sixth with singles to right and left by Nuñez and Spain respectively against Angel Chivilli. A wild pitch moved them up 90 feet but Doughty and Martinez went down swinging and Devonte Brown flew out to center.
Vancouver skipper Brent Lavallee opted to come back to Brock for the bottom of the seventh and he retired Rodriguez on a fly ball to center for the first out. Brock walked Quijada with one out and fell behind in the count 3-1 to Amador before ending the eight-pitch battle with a 4-6-3 double play to take care of pinch-runner Braiden Ward to end the game. Brock’s fourth save helped Kelly run his record to 3-0.
C-Notes
Alan Roden continues to be an on-base machine. The former Creighton Bluejay went 2-for-3 with two walks and scored three times Sunday to extend his hitting streak to a season-best eight games and his on-base streak to 24 games. He started the season by making it on base safely in his first 10 games with the C’s. The night his streak ended, he still got on base but it was due to an error at third base by Eugene’s Luis Toribio as the ball went through his legs. Otherwise, Roden would be on a 35-game on-base run. His 15 doubles on the year tie him with Everett’s Alberto Rodriguez for the Northwest League lead. He is batting .316/.438/.474 with two homers and 21 runs batted in.
Garrett Spain has jumped his batting average from .190 to .299 thanks to an eight-game hitting streak and nine straight games getting on base. He has recorded two hits in each of his last three games.
Cade Doughty has endured a miserable May in which his batting average sank to .176 but the LSU product started to show the Eye of the Tiger during the team’s series in Tri-City in which he had two hits apiece in three games of a four-game hitting streak and four walks in another game. He exploded for a trio of three-hit games over the weekend, going 9-for-12 with a home run, two doubles and eight runs batted in. That has shot up his BA to .246.
After a gruelling 15-game road trip that ended at 7-8, the C’s are in first place in the Northwest League with a record of 24-20. They are one game ahead of Eugene at 23-21 and 1-1/2 games ahead of Eugene, Everett and Tri-City at 23-22. The former Austin Peay Governor has three straight two-hit games and is hitting .380 so far in May.
The Canadians come back home to Nat Bailey Stadium to battle the Eugene Emeralds for a six-game series starting Tuesday. Michael Dominguez will fire the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. Tyler Zickel will call the action on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
2022-2023 Canadians infielder Riley Tirotta is off to a good start at Double-A New Hampshire. He is slashing .333/.500/.444 with three RBI and four walks in his first three games.
2022-2023 hurler Chad Dallas is making a smooth adjustment to Double-A so far. He has yielded just an unearned run over his first two starts with the Fisher Cats. The former Tennessee Volunteer won the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week award after seven shutout innings and nine strikeouts to pick up a win against Binghamton on May 19. Dallas won the Northwest League Pitcher of the Week honours after surrendering just one unearned run over six innings while racking up nine whiffs in a victory at Hillsboro on May 3.
2022 lefty Jimmy Burnette is now with Triple-A Buffalo and has recorded a pair of scoreless innings at Lehigh Valley with a strikeout-walk total of 3-2.
2021 infielder Rafael Lantigua has an on-base streak of 23 games that began in late April. He is scorching the ball at a .326/.472/.533 clip and is hitting .377 so far in the month of May.
2019 and 2021 infielder Spencer Horwitz has an on-base string of 30 games that started back on April 20. The former Radford product is hitting .350/.450/.438 in May.
2015 C’s lefty Tayler Saucedo is enjoying life with the team he grew up cheering for. He picked up the win in relief by striking out the side in the 10th inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-3.
2014 C’s outfielder Jonathan Davis has a new lease on life with the Miami Marlins. He contributed a home run for the Fish in a win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 24. Davis—traded from Detroit on May 22 in exchange for outfielder Brady Allen—had two three-hit games to start his Miami tenure and is hitting .364 in the early going.
2017 center fielder Reggie Pruitt is off to a good start with the Milwaukee Milkmen of the Independent American Association. He is hitting .357/.500/.571 in 10 games with two homers, three RBI and four stolen bases. Pruitt was with the Winnipeg Goldeyes in 2022.
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