The Vancouver Canadians doubled up the Spokane Indians 4-2 at Avista Stadium on Saturday.
After shutting out Vancouver over six innings and striking out 10 batters at Nat Bailey Stadium on June 28, Carson Palmquist did not last nearly as long this time around. The former Miami Hurricane and 2022 third-round pick of Colorado gave up an infield single to Dasan Brown at third to start the game. A Garrett Spain walk got Brown over to second and the Oakville, Ontario native would score on a Gabby Martinez one-out base hit to right field. Cade Doughty followed that up by launching a three-run home run to right to put the C’s ahead 4-0, his team-leading 11th tater of the year. Ryan McCarty extended the inning with a two-out walk that lasted 10 pitches. That was enough to chase Palmquist from the game as his pitch count was up to 38. Fellow lefty Evan Shawver was called in to finish the inning.
Canadians starter Michael Dominguez was on his game early as he struck out Benny Montgomery looking on three pitches. Rehabbing big leaguer Brendan Rodgers went down swinging and Sterlin Thompson was caught looking at a third strike to end a 1-2-3 bottom of the first.
The first jam of the night for Dominguez was a one-out walk by Ryan Ritter and a two-out hit by pitch for Ben Sems but the righthander ended the second inning by fanning Bryant Quijada.
The C’s got their next hit in the top of the third when Alex De Jesús doubled to left off Shawver. Doughty then singled to center to get De Jesús to third. De Jesús tried to tag up and score on a Josh Kasevich fly ball to right but he was thrown out at the plate by Braiden Ward to keep the Vancouver lead at four.
Dominguez kept Spokane at bay in the bottom of the third by stranding a one-out single to center and stolen base by Montgomery by striking out Rodgers looking for the second out and getting Thompson to line out to center.
Kekai Rios was the only baserunner in the fourth inning as Shawver plunked him in the hands with one out. The bottom of the fourth saw Dominguez fan the side for the second time of the night by getting Zach Kokoska swinging and Ritter and Nic Kent looking.
De Jesús had a one-out base hit to left in the top of the fifth before Shawver got Martinez into a 6-3 double play. Spokane finally solved Dominguez with a one-out rally in the bottom of the frame. Bryant Quijada walked and went to third when Ward reached base on a throwing error by De Jesús at short. Ward stole second base and would get to third when a Montgomery sacrifice fly to right scored Quijada. That was all Spokane would get as Dominguez got Rodgers to ground out to second. That would be the end of the night for Dominguez and Rodgers’ last trip to the plate
Only one ball was put into play in the sixth inning and that was McCarty grounding out to new Spokane hurler Brayan Castillo to complete a 1-2-3 stanza. Hunter Gregory made sure that was the only contact that was made as he came in from the Vancouver bullpen to strike out the side. delivering a TKO to the TKR batters of Thompson, Koskoska and Ritter.
The C’s had two baserunners in their half of the seventh when Rios was plunked again with a pitch but he was erased on a 6-4-3 double play from Lyle Lin. Brown was awarded first base when Quijada was called for catcher’s interference. A passed ball put Brown at second but Spain struck out to end that threat.
Spokane made contact against Gregory in the bottom of the seventh as Kent and Sems got things started with singles to left. A swinging bunt by Quijada moved the runners up. Ward lifted a fly ball to left but Kent elected not to tag up from third to score. Kent would end up crossing home plate when Gregory was called for a balk. The Old Dominion righthander bounced back by striking out Montgomery for out number three.
Doughty reached base again when he was hit by a pitch by Castillo with two outs. The LSU Tiger got himself into scoring position by stealing second base but that was as far as he could get.
Lefthander Ian Churchill made his first appearance out of the Vancouver bullpen for the first time in July. He was able to deal with a two-out walk by Kokoska and a wild pitch by beginning and ending the eighth with strikeouts of Robby Martin Jr. and Ritter respectively. Martin took Rodgers’ spot in the batting order as he entered the game in right field in the previous half-inning. Ward took over for Rodgers at the keystone.
The ninth inning was uneventful as Juan Mejia had a perfect top of the ninth before Justin Kelly matched that effort in the bottom of the ninth, getting a strikeout of Sems along the way to put Dominguez in the win column. Dominguez improves to 6-2 on the year. Gregory was credited with his second hold and Churchill his first to help Kelly collect save number two on the year.
C-Notes
The Canadians bumped their overall win total to 55 against 33 losses. Their second-half mark is now 17-6, keeping them three lengths ahead of Everett for first place. Spokane and Eugene are seven games behind and Tri-City and Hillsboro are eight games in arrears.
Vancouver looks to end their trip to Eastern Washington with five wins in six tries in the series finale on Sunday. Rafael Sánchez gets the ball for Vancouver in a 1:05 p.m. start at Avista Stadium. The game can be heard on CanadiansBaseball.com with Tyler Zickel calling the action.
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