A concerning moment for starter Jairo Labourt, who appeared to have some sort of hand, finger or blister problem in the first inning. Catcher Michael De La Cruz holds Labourt's wrist. Third baseman Alexis Maldonado heads to the mound.
The Vancouver Canadians and Spokane Indians - an affiliate of the Texas Rangers - opened a three-game series at Nat Bailey Stadium. There was a playoff atmosphere to this one as the C's attempted to take another step to reaching the post-season for the fifth consecutive year.
A concerning moment for starter Jairo Labourt, who appeared to have some sort of hand, finger or blister problem in the first inning. Catcher Michael De La Cruz holds Labourt's wrist. Third baseman Alexis Maldonado heads to the mound.
Jairo Labourt throws a pitch under the watchful eyes of pitching coach Jeff Ware and trainer Reggie Mungrue. Despite four hits and five walks, Labourt managed to limit Spokane to an unearned run over five innings thanks to five strikeouts. He pitched in the 79-96 MPH range.
Labourt's unearned run was the result of a Richard Urena error at second base in the second inning. Urena made up for the transgression with his glove with a leadoff triple in the third inning and would score on a Michael De La Cruz single to tie the game at 1-1.
Michael De La Cruz slides into third base after a hit-and-run was executed perfectly on an Alexis Maldonado single. De La Cruz would score on a Roemon Fields groundout to give the C's their first lead at 2-1.
Alexis Maldonado steals third base and is about to get up and score Vancouver's third run of the inning after a throwing error by Spokane catcher Jose Trevino.
Alberto Tirado gave up Vancouver's 3-1 lead thanks to some sloppy defence in the sixth inning on errors by shortstop Franklin Barreto and Tirado himself. However, the defence redeemed itself with a 1-2-5-4 inning-ending double play as they tagged out a runner between third and home before getting Juremi Profar trying to advance to second base. Just one of three runs Tirado allowed was earned as he pitched two innings with three hits and one walk allowed while striking out one.
Justin Shafer pitched the eighth inning and was the C's third
pitcher of the evening. He surrendered a leadoff double but the runner
was doubled off after shortstop Franklin Barreto caught a shallow
bloop in left-center field and threw it to second baseman Richard Urena
for a double play. That proved to be huge as Spokane followed with a
single before Shafer struck out the next hitter to end the inning. That
kept it a one-run ball game.
Tim Locastro started a two-out rally with a single in the eighth and came around to score the tying run.
Franklin Barreto kept the rally going with a two-strike single and scored the go-ahead run in front of an applauding Tim Locastro.
Ryan McBroom is greeted at second base by manager John Schneider after a two-strike, two-out double that scored Locastro and Barreto. McBroom swung and missed on the first two pitches at 84 and 85 MPH before ripping a double down the left field line. Phil Kish struck out the first two hitters in the ninth before an alert Michael De La Cruz snared a tapper in front of home plate and applied a quick tag on the batter to end the ball game. That was Kish's eighth save of the season as the Canadians prevailed over the Indians 5-4.
Tim Locastro had two hits and a plunk but was caught stealing. Richard Urena and Alexis Maldonado also put a '2' in the hit column. Jonathan Davis got his first start after a hamate bone injury and played in right field. He stung a couple of balls to short and left but finished up 0-for-3.
After the game, the Canadians handed out their year-end awards. The Pitcher of the Year went to Jairo Labourt and the Hitter of the Year honours was shared by Franklin Barreto and Ryan McBroom. The Fan's Choice Award went to pitcher Andrew Case and the team MVP was Franklin Barreto.
The Vancouver victory reduces their magic number to one, meaning one
more Canadians win or a Tri-City loss would give the C's the North
Division title for the second half. After losing 2-out-of-3 to Spokane in the previous three regular season series, the Canadians have a chance to win this one and built some momentum in facing Spokane in a potential North Division final. Should that come to pass, Game 1 would be played at Nat Bailey Stadium Tuesday night. The C's will play Spokane in a 1:05 pm start Pacific Time. Matt Smoral is in line for the start after having pitched Tuesday night in Eugene. He is 2-0 with a 2.40 earned run average.
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