The Vancouver Canadians hammered the Eugene Emeralds 12-3 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday.
Vancouver starter Michael Dominguez retired the first two hitters with tthe second out coming on a strikeout of Aeverson Arteaga. Dominguez then plunked Jared Dupere in the batting helmet but the Emeralds left fielder waved off the training staff and remained in the game. Dominguez then froze Sean Roby on a 3-2 pitch to strike him out looking for the third out.
The top of the second started with a pair of walks to Adrian Sugastey and Luis Toribio but Dominguez got some help from his defence to keep the Emerads off the board. Garrett Spain made an outstanding diving catch near the right field line to rob Thomas Gavello of a run-scoring hit. Dominguez took care of the rest by fanning Carter Williams and Ghordy Santos to strand the runners.
Eugene starter Daniel Blair made his High-A debut and gave up his first hit when Michael Turconi flared a single to center with two outs. Blair would bracket that with a couple of strikeouts to keep the game scoreless.
The C’s would get to Blair in the bottom of the second with a one-out rally. Josh Kasevich made his return to the lineup as the designated hitter and singled to center field. Spain then slammed off the top of the wall in right field and that allowed Kasevich to score on a headfirst slide all the way from first for Vancouver’s first run. The former Oregon Duck showed no ill effects after injuring himself running in Eugene back in June. Kekai Rios followed with a single to right to score Spain to make it a 2-0 game. Estiven Machado also singled to the nine-spot and Alan Roden doubled off the right field wall to score Rios with run number three. Turconi then drove in Machado and Roden with a base hit up the middle to up the C’s lead to 5-0.
Grant McCray tried to bunt his way aboard in the top of the third but the ball went right to Dominguez for a convenient 1-3 putout. Arteaga drew a walk before Dupere went down swinging but Roby kept the inning going by singling to right just in front of a hard-charging Spain. Dominguez got out of that jam when Alex De Jesús chased a ball down in medium-left field towards the line to make the catch off the bat of Sugastey.
Doughty jumped on Blair’s first pitch for a single to left field but that was it for the C’s in the bottom of the third.
Luis Toribio worked the count to ball four to begin the top of the fourth. Dominguez struck out Gavello for the first of two outs before Santos lined a triple to the right field corner to score Toribio with the Emeralds first run.
Roden had a seeing-eye single to left with one away in the bottom of the fourth. Dasan Brown then doubled down the left field line with the ball going off the wall in foul territory to allow Roden to rumble home from first to restore the C’s five-run advantage. Turconi was robbed of a hit up the middle when Arteaga made a nice spear just over the second base bag to start a 6-3 putout. Brown went to third on the play and was joined by De Jesús on the basepaths with a two-out walk. Doughty then doubled all the way to the fence in left field to score Brown and De Jesús to put Vancouver up 8-1. That was it for Blair as he gave the ball to lefty Joe Kemlage. Kasevich was then robbed of extra bases on a deep drive to right field as Williams made a nice over-the-shoulder grab near the wall to end the inning.
In the top of the fifth, the Emeralds got a leadoff double to the left field corner from Arteaga and he would score on a two-run homer to right by Dupere to make it an 8-3 game. Roby flew out to center and that was the last batter Dominguez would face. Lefthander Naswell Paulino entered the game and walked Toribio with two away. Gavello then reached base when De Jesús booted a ball at short but Paulino got the two outs he needed with Williams popping up to third for the final out to prevent any more damage.
Kemlage threw four pitches missing the strike zone to walk Spain in the bottom of the fifth and then he served up a long ball as Rios rocked one off the video board in left-center field to match the Emeralds two-run shot and restore Vancouver’s seven-run bulge. That was Rios’ first home run as a member of the Blue Jays organization.
Hunter Gregory was summoned from the C’s bullpen for the top of the sixth. He struck out Santos before setting down McCray on a drive to the warning track in left field. Gregory then whiffed Arteaga to punctuate a perfect frame.
The home half of the sixth saw Arteaga range to his right to rob Turconi of another hit as the Em’s shortstop made a nice throw to start a 6-3 putout. De Jesús got a walk with one out but he was later thrown out trying to steal second for the third out.
Dupere was the first runner to reach base against Gregory with a leadoff base on balls in the top of the seventh. That was eradicated by a 6-4-3 double play ball from Roby. Sugastey singled to center on the next pitch and Toribio went to first on a walk but Gregory got Gavello on a pop-up to third for out number three.
In the bottom of the seventh, Spain had a sold single up the gut with one out and Rios followed with a single to left over the head of Arteaga at short but Kemlage closed the door after that.
Ryan Boyer was next up out of the Vancouver arm barm for the top of the eighth. He struck out Santos and Arteaga for the final two outs to work around a McCray two-out single to right.
Southpaw Matt Mikulski pitched the bottom of the eighth for Eugene. De Jesús doubled to left-center with two outs and Doughty and Kasevich got free passes to fill the bases. Spain was then walked to bring home De Jesús and Milkulski uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Doughty to reach the pentagon for run number 12.
Cooper Benson was called in for the top of the ninth and the southpaw ended a perfect frame with a fly ball to right by Sugastey. Paulino was the winner in his return from Double-A New Hampshire to move to 4-3 on the year.
C-Notes
Emeralds catcher and Toronto native Max Wright was warming up in the bullpen just in case Mikulski was unable to finish the ninth.
All nine C’s hitters had at least one hit as they racked up 15 total knocks on the night as compared to six by the Emeralds.
The Canadians found the win column for the 50th time in 2023 against 32 losses. They improve to 12-5 in the second half. Everett and Spokane are three games back of Vancouver while Eugene, Hillsboro and Tri-City are all five back.
Devereaux Harrison gets the starting assigment for the series finale on Sunday afternoon. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV for a 1:05 p.m. first pitch.
Radar Gun Rundown
Dominguez was at 81 miles per hour and registered strikeouts of 83, 84, 86, 83, 84 and 90. Paulino was around 78-91. Gregory was at 80 with two punchouts at 93. Boyer was at 81 and fanned batters at 92 and 93. Benson was at 77-92.
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