The Vancouver Canadians outlasted the Tri-City Dust Devils 13-10 at Gesa Stadium on Saturday.
The Canadians erased a 3-1 deficit in the fifth and did they ever against Dust Devils starter Joel Hurtado. Dasan Brown drilled a double to left-center to score Jean Arnaez who walked to begin the inning. Ryan McCarty then took Hurtado deep for a two-run homer to put Vancouver ahead 4-3.
Back-to-back walks by Jace Bohrofen and Jackson Hornung and a single to right by Jeff Wehler loaded the bases, sending Hurtado to the showers in favour of Ryan Langford. The Dust Devils reliever was betrayed by his defence when Jorge Ruiz muffed a Brennan Orf fly ball in center field, allowing Bohrofen to score. Ruiz’s throw was taken by Ben Gobbel and he tried to throw out Hornung at third but appeared to hit him in the head with the ball. Hornung was okay to continue and so was the Canadians offence. Hornung scored on an infield single to short by Dylan Rock and Wehler tagged up to come home on a Glenn Santiago sacrifice fly to right to put the C’s up 7-3.
Langford threw to first to pick off Rock but a Ronaldo Flores throw to pick off Orf from third went awry and that allowed Orf to score Vancouver’s eighth run. After Rock was credited with a steal of second and Arnaez’s base hit to right, consecutive errors by Gobbel and shortstop Caleb Ketchup on grounders by Brown and McCarty led to Rock coming home and setting up a bases-loaded situation for Bohrofen. The former Arkansas Razorback doubled to left to drive in Arnaez and Brown. Hornung walked to reload the bases and Wehler singled to center to bring in McCarty. An Orf sac fly to center scored Bohrofen to cap a 12-run rally.
Despite a 13-3 lead, Vancouver was not safe as the Dust Devils roughed up Rafael Sánchez for seven runs over 2-2/3 innings. Flores belted a three-run homer to left to bring Tri-City to within a converted touchdown in the sixth.
In the seventh, Tri-City filled the bases with two outs against Sánchez. A Gobble infield single to third in which Santiago had to come off the first base bag to snare McCarty’s high throw led to a run. Santiago felt he still tagged Gobbel before getting to first and C’s manager Brent Lavallee argued the play but the call stood. A Kevin Bruggeman bases-loaded walk made it a 13-8 game, leading to Conor Larkin relieving Sánchez. A two-run knock by Flores git the Dust Devils to double digits in the run column. Larkin ended the inning by getting Ketchup to hit a sinking liner to Wehler at short in Wehler’s first game as a shortstop in the Jays organization.
Tri-City threatened in the bottom of the eighth again when Ruiz drew a leadoff walk, stole second and third and had Matt Coutney join him on the bases with a two-out free pass. Josh Mollerus took over for Larkin and struck out Gobbel swinging.
Mollerus walked Bruggeman to begin the ninth but got the next three hitters with game-ending strikeouts of Stewart and Ketchup to collect the save.
C-Notes
Before the 12-run explosion in the fifth, the C’s got on the board in the fourth. Bohrofen doubled to left off Hurtado with nobody out but only made his way around the bases thanks to a couple of two-out miscues from the mound. Hurtado sailed a pickoff throw at second to move Bohrofen to third. A ball four wild pitch to Orf that glanced off the glove of Bruggeman allowed Bohrofen to score.
Lazaro Estrada got the start for Monty’s Mounties and got out of the first two innings unscathed. A one-out Ruiz walk in the first was erased when Hornung blocked a pitch in the dirt and threw out Ruiz at second. Lazaro then fanned Denzer Guzman to end the first and went on to retire the side in order in the second which featured a strikeout of Coutney.
Tri-City did get to Estrada in the third without the benefit of a hit. Bruggeman was plunked on the left arm and Flores followed up with a walk. A double steal with one-out and a Ketchup grounder to short scored Bruggeman for the first run of the game. Estrada stranded Flores at third by striking out Ruiz to end his outing.
The winning pitcher for Vancouver was Naswell Paulino but he was nicked for two runs in the fourth when four of the first five Tri-City hitters reached base. A one-out Gobbel double to left scored a leadoff single to left by Guzman before a one-out single to right by Bruggeman plated Coutney, who reached base on a fielder’s choice. The C’s limited the damage when Hornung threw out Bruggeman trying to steal second before Paulino got Flores to ground out to second for the third out.
Along with Estrada being added to the roster, catcher José Ferrer joins the roster and has been transferred to the Development List. Vancouver is employing two catchers right now with Hornung and Jommer Hernández after Kekai Rios was placed on the injured list.
Vancouver is back at the .500 mark with 11 wins and 11 losses but will have to wait until Tuesday to get over the hump. Sunday’s 1:30 p.m. series finale against Tri-City was washed out so that means the game will be rescheduled for the next time the C’s are in Pasco. Another six-game set between the two clubs is scheduled at Gesa Stadium from June 18-23 but the game will need to be made up sometime before June 20 as that is the final game of the first half of the season.
The C’s now have five games to make up for in the first half after the final four games of their series against Spokane were rained out last month. It’s believed the four games will be spread out evenly when the Canadians travel to Spokane in nearly two weeks time before hosting the Tribe again at Nat Bailey Stadium in June.
Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada will be at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday night to sign autographs as the C’s play host to the Everett AquaSox. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV. Geison Urbaez will unleash the first pitch at 7:05 p.m.
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