The Vancouver Canadians have yet to win a six-game series in 2025 after losing four of six games to the Spokane Indians at Avista Stadium.
May 6, 2025 – Spokane 9 Vancouver 2
2B – Parker (6), 3B – Hornung (1), HR – Pinto (5) | Peterson 1IP 0R 1K, Todd 1.1IP 0R 3K, Sánchez 1IP 0R.
May 7, 2025 – Spokane 9 Vancouver 7
2B – Pinto (3), Keys (5), Coffey (6), Nimmala (7), Stone (4), HR – Pinto 2 (7), SB – Orf (2) | Rojas 1IP 0R 2K (H, 1), Bonds 0.1IP 0R.
May 8, 2025 – Vancouver 5 Spokane 1
2B – Keys 2 (7), Nimmala (8), Hornung (2), HR – Keys (3), Cunningham 2 (3) | Perez 6IP 1R 5K (W, 1-2), Garkow 3IP 0R 6K (SV, 1)
May 9, 2025 – Vancouver 10 Spokane 1
3B – Parker (1), HR – Keys (4), Micheletti (2), Parker (3), SB. – Pinto 2 (3) | Rogers 5IP 1R 7K (W, 3-0), Gallagher 2IP 0R 2K (H, 2), Batista 2IP 0R 1K
May 10, 2025 – Spokane 5 Vancouver 4
HR – Nimmala (7) | Rojas 1IP 0R 1K
C-Notes
Congratulations to infielder Adrian Pinto for winning the Northwest League Player of the Week for May 5-11. The Caguas, Venezuela native batted .467 with three home runs, including leadoff dingers in back-to-back games along with a double and two stolen bases. Pinto is the second Canadians player to win NWL POW honours this season, just two weeks after outfielder Victor Arias garnered that award.
Tuesday
The C’s had two quick leads disappear on them with a leadoff homer by Adrian Pinto in the first and an RBI triple by Jackson Hornung in the second. Aaron Parker—who had one of the four Vancouver hits—reached base with one out in the sixth on an error by Andy Perez. That was the last time a Vancouver player was on base as 23 of the last 24 hitters were retired.
Caleb Hobson stole second base and stole home for Spokane’s fifth run in the fourth inning.
Wednesday
The only misstep for Pinto after his two-run homer game was trying for a triple but he was thrown out at third to start the fifth inning. doubled and was thrown out while trying to reach third on an 8-4-5 play to open up the fifth inning. Vancouver wound up scoring three runs in that frame.
Righthander Yondrei Rojas had a successful C’s debut with two strikeouts in the sixth, stranding a walk in the process.
Thursday
Fernando Perez got his first Northwest League win with six innings of one-run ball. Sean Keys homered to open the scoring in the fifth and Carter Cunningham‘s first of two home runs put Vancouver ahead for good. The C’s put up picket fences on the line score with one run apiece in innings five through nine.
Friday
Grant Rogers was able to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the third inning to run his record to 3-0. He scattered four hits and two walks over five innings of one-run ball.
Aaron Parker secured the hard part of a potential cycle with his first triple of the year along with his third homer of the year.
Saturday
The C’s had a golden opportunity in the eighth inning against Spokane reliever Cade Denton after a Nick Goodwin RBI single and a hit-by-pitch to Sean Keys loaded the bases with one out. Denton left the game with a leg injury and was replaced by lefty Welinton Herrera. Aaron Parker was denied of a hit on a running catch by center fielder Jared Thomas. The C’s left 11 men on the bases.
Jackson Hornung threw out Jesus Bugarin at the plate from left field to prevent a third Spokane run in the fourth inning. That was before C’s starter Jackson Wentworth picked off Skyler Messenger trying to steal third base.
Sunday
The Canadians had two leads but could not hold them. They broke a scoreless tie in the seventh with two runs and added one in the eighth but Spokane answered back both times. Carter Cunningham tried to score on a pitch in the dirt but Spokane catcher José Ordoñez recovered the ball in time to tag Cunningham at the plate in the eighth. Chay Yeager was able to induce an inning-ending double play in the eighth from Andy Perez, who had hit a two-run homer in the seventh to tie it.
The C’s had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth inning and stranded two runners in scoring position in the 10th inning, leaving 13 men on in total. The ninth was especially frustrating when Jackson Hornung hit Sean Keys with a batted ball, resulting in a Hornung base hit but Keys was called out as he could not avoid the rawhide.
Vancouver had three sacrifice flies in the game from Hayden Gilliland, Arjun Nimmala and Alex Stone.
Spokane second baseman Braylen Wimmer, who walked off the C’s on Sunday, had this to say about Vancouver starter Juaron Watts-Brown in this Spokesman-Review story.
“Watts-Brown is legit. He had good stuff. We just had to grind him out and luckily our pitching staff kept us in it.”
Watts-Brown held Spokane to two hits over six shuotut innings and struck out 10 batters on Sunday.
The Canadians will line up the starting rotation with Kevin Miranda starting the series opener and closer against the Everett AquaSox on Tuesday and Sunday, respectively. He will be followed by Fernando Perez, Grant Rogers, Jackson Wentworth and Juaron Watts-Brown from Wednesday to Saturday. Also on Saturday, 2024 Seattle Mariners first-round pick and switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje is listed as the probable starter for Saturday’s game.
Game times are 7:05 pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and 1:05 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All games are on CanadiansBaseball.com and BallySports.com with Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges.
2023 C’s righthander Hunter Gregory is off to a fine start at Double-A New Hampshire this season. He posted three shutout innings with two strikeouts to pick up the win against Hartford on May 10 and lowered his earned run average to 0.56. Hat tip to Tyler Zickel for his press notes.
C-Changes
2024-2025 C’s catcher Alex Stone has been promoted to Double-A New Hampshire. The former Duke Blue Devil drove in 10 runs in 15 games and had four doubles. Righthander Pat Gallagher is now taking over Stone’s number 27 after beginning the year wearing number 11.
2024 catcher Nic Deschamps returns to Monty’s Mounties after beginning the year on the Development List with the Fisher Cats. The Quebec City native had a .349 on-base percentage with a home run in a dozen games with the C’s last season. Deschamps will wear number 26, the same digits he wore in 2024.
2022-2023 outfielder Gabriel Martinez returns to Vancouver after spending last year and the beginning of this year in Manchester. A key contributor to the C’s playoff runs in 2022 and 2023, including a game-winning RBI in Game 3 of the Northwest League Championship Series against Everett to help the club win the ’23 title, Martinez hopes to regain the form of his earlier years in the Jays system. He will wear number 8, which Jay Harry wore earlier this season.
Victor Arias poses for Photo Day at Nat Bailey Stadium with the Vancouver Asahi baseball jersey in the foreground. The C’s will wear the Asahi jersey in their May 13 game against Everett.
Outfielder Victor Arias has been placed on the seven-day injured list as of May 8. He appeared in the first two games of the Spokane series and was the designated hitter in his last game after playing center field in the series opener. The Venezuelan had three hits in eight at-bats over those two contests.
2024 C’s righthander Chris McElvain is back on the mound with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays, throwing three shutout innings against the FCL Tigers with just one hit allowed, two strikeouts and six groundball outs on May 8.
Other notable moves involving former Vancouver Canadians on the transactions column.
- SS Leo Jiménez (2022) begins rehab assignment with the FCL Blue Jays.
- OF Devonte Brown (2023) assigned to Low-A Dunedin from Double-A New Hampshire.
- RHP Adam Kloffenstein (2019, 2021-2022)
- INF Damiano Palmegiani (2022) activated from Development List to Triple-A Buffalo.
- RHP Hayden Juenger (2021) placed on 7-Day injured list at Buffalo.
- LHP Jimmy Burnette (2022) assigned to Buffalo from New Hampshire.
- OF Alan Roden (2023) assigned to Buffalo from Toronto.
- LHP Adam Macko (2023) begins rehab assignment in FCL.
2021-2022 righthander Sem Robberse has been placed on the full-season injured list by the St. Louis Cardinals. Hat tip to Tyson Shushkewich of Jays Nation for the heads-up. The Netherlands native was 1-1 with 19 strikeouts in 14-2/3 innings with Triple-A Memphis this season.
Also, 2022-2023 infielder Michael Turconi was released by the Toronto Blue Jays on May 6. The former Wake Forest Demon Deacon joined the C’s late in the 2022 season and had three hits in seven at-bats against Eugene in the Northwest League final. He batted .299 in 2023 and hit for the cycle at Hillsboro in early August. Not long after, Turconi was promoted to Double-A New Hampshire and missed out on the C’s championship title in 2023 but make no mistake, he was a big-time contributor. He split 2024 with New Hampshire and Triple-A Buffalo and began this season back with the Bisons. All the best to Michael in his future endeavours.
In a move that saddens me, the Toronto Blue Jays traded 2022 outfielder and fan favourite Steward Berroa to the Los Angeles Dodgers for cash. The winner of the Ossie Chavarria Fan’s Choice Award made his major league debut with the Jays last season, just two years after stealing 40 bases with Vancouver.
All the best to ‘Disco Stew’ with the Los Angeles Dodgers and I hope they give him a better playing opportunity than the Blue Jays did.
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