The Vancouver Canadians were hammered by the Eugene Emeralds 11-4 at P.K. Park on Thursday.
The Emeralds took a 2-0 lead after two innings thanks to a pair of homers to center field against C’s Devereaux Harrison by Carter Howell with one out in the first off and by Matt Higgins with nobody out in the second.
Vancouver could do nothing with a one-out Dasan Brown double to left in the top of the first as Em’s starter Nick Sinacola struck out the side. A Gabby Martinez one-out infield single to third was wasted in the second.
The Canadians would tie the game in the top of the third with back-to-back doubles to left and right by Jommer Hernández and Devonte Brown leading to the first run. Cade Doughty singled to left with one out to score Devonte Brown to tie the game at 2-2. Josh Kasevich drew a two-out walk and that was it for Sinacola who was visited twice during the at-bat by the Emeralds training staff before being replaced by Matt Mikulski who got the final out of the inning.
Eugene pulled ahead again when Grant McCray singled to right to lead off the bottom of the third, went to third on a one-out infield single to second by Aeverson Arteaga and scored on a two-run double to right by Jared Dupere. A Luis Toribio sacrifice fly to right scored Arteaga from third to restore the Emeralds two-run advantage.
After the C’s did nothing with a Hernández two-out single in the fourth, the Emeralds poured it on in the home half of the fourth. Onil Perez singled to center before Ghordy Santos homered to center to make it 6-2 Em’s. Damon Dues doubled to left and McCray was hit by a pitch, the final one of the night by Harrison. Lefty Cooper Benson was put on defence right away when Howell bunted Dues and McCray into scoring position. That led to an Arteaga sac fly to right to score Dues with Eugene’s seventh run.
Vancouver scored its third run in the fifth when Dasan Brown drew a walk, moved to second on a Mikulski wild pitch, advanced to third on a Doughty fly out to right and came home on a throwing error by Arteaga at short on a ground ball by Garrett Spain.
The Emeralds offence continued their assault in the next half-inning. A Higgins walk and a Perez single with one out and a Dues two-out plunk loaded the bases. All three runners would score as McCray delivered a two-run single to center before a Benson balk helped Eugene put up double digits on the scoreboard. Howell then doubled to right to drive in McCray with run number 11.
The best Vancouver could do to respond was get just one run in the top of the sixth. A two-out double by Hernández led to Mikulski leaving the game. Brent Standlee walked Devonte Brown before a wild pitch and a Perez passed ball brought Hernández across home plate.
The C’s finally kept the Emeralds off the board in the sixth when Benson surrendered just a two-out single to center by Higgins.
Al Pesto was brought in for the seventh for Vancouver and worked around a pair of singles to center and right by Dues and McCray with one out by striking out Howell on the way to putting up a goose egg.
Justin Kelly also had two baserunners to deal with in the bottom of the eighth. After striking out Dupere for the first out, Toribio walked and Perez singled to short with two away before Santos grounded out to short to end the inning.
Vancouver’s offence did absolutely nothing over the final three innings as Standlee retired 10 in a row to finish out the game.
C-Notes
Devereaux Harrison took the loss to fall to 5-3 on the season. Vancouver is 68-41 on the year and 30-14 in the second half. The Emeralds are now just a half-game behind Everett for the right to meet the C’s in the Northwest League final. The AquaSox lost their second straight to Hillsboro on Thursday. The Frogs are 6-1/2 games behind the Canadians in the second half standings while the Emeralds are seven back.
Hunter Gregory gets the ball for Vancouver in the third game of this series. The game begins at 6:35 p.m. with Tyler Zickel calling the action at P.K. Park on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game is also on MiLB.TV.
C-Changes
The Toronto Blue Jays have promoted infielder Abiezel Ramirez from Low-A Dunedin to Vancouver. The 22-year-old from Azua in the Dominican Republic signed as a free agent with Toronto on April 30. He had been with the Tampa Bay organization since joining the Rays as a free agent on July 2, 2016. The 5-foot-10, 160-pound switch-hitter slashed .238/.361/.385 in 40 games with 11 extra-base hits, 15 runs batted in and five stolen bases for Dunedin this season. He has made 17 starts at second base, six at third base and one in center field. A career .249 hitter in his 350 minor league game career, Ramirez will wear number 34 for the C’s.
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