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MLB

Emeralds at Canadians - Series Preview

By Dan Chalcraft
July 18, 2013

The Vancouver Canadians are heading into the final series of the Northwest League first half of the season, where they play the Eugene Emeralds in the first game in a five-game home stand at Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium and sit three games back of the division leaders Everett AquaSox.

In a three game series against division rivals Everett, Vancouver was only able to get one win which was in the first game where Eric Brown threw seven solid innings allowing only three hits while striking out nine picking up his league leading five win of the season as the team contributed offensively scoring 13 runs.

Despite the loss, the Canadians have had many positives this season getting solid pitching this season throughout the whole rotation where the C's Manager Clayton McCullough points to their starting pitching as their biggest strength. Vancouver leads the Northwest League in team pitching with a 3.22 ERA with pitchers only allowing five home runs and 130 runs in 301.2 innings.

McCullough believes that their starting pitching one through five has been reliable throughout the year where Eric Brown, Jeremy Gabryszwski, and Kyle Anderson has given the team good starts pitching a lot of innings as well as Matthew Dermody and Scott Silverstein have been effective too. The Canadians send right-hander Jeremy Gabryszwski to the mound tonight to open their five game series against Eugene where this season in 34 innings pitched he has given up only 27 hits, two walks, and struck out 18 batters with a 2-1 record and a league best 0.79 ERA.

As well, offensively Jordan Leyland has been leading the C's offensive with a league best .347 average with 1 home run, 19 RBI, 43 hits and 11 doubles. McCullough has felt that the team has been pretty solid throughout the year. He said "on the flip side the way Jordan Leyland has swung the bat all season long and new guys like Dantzler he has picked it up he has been swinging the bat great, Ian Parmley he has had a nice year so good contributions from a lot." 

The C's Manager has been impressed with the play of David Harris where he has two home runs and 12 RBI in 18 games as his average sits at .288 on the season. McCullough knows that the team didn't help their chances as they dropped only their second series of the season against Everett, but has a positive outlook feeling that anything could happen and wants to start this home stand with a win and just keep on getting better.

"We want to keep playing our best baseball here towards the back half of the year, so this first half is not over yet we know it's a big uphill climb with five games to go down three but you never know we're just going to finish strong," he said.

McCullough adds that their are returning players from the 2011 and 2012 Northwest League Championship team and they know what it takes to get the job done and feels that this series will be tough.

But, the C's skipper is focused on just winning as many games this series against Eugene and then hopefully continue win their next series against the Spokane Indians on the road to give the team momentum going into the second half.

Even though the Canadians are facing a team that has lost four straight and have an 11-22 record, they have to be prepared to play good baseball. The team isn't looking too far ahead as they have to win one game at a time as McCullough feels that they have to weary of their opponents' Eugene Emeralds where they have gotten solid pitching. He stated that their starters have posted some good numbers and offensively they are swinging the bats better and scoring more runs than earlier on in the season.

OF Ronnie Richardson has two home runs and nine RBI in 27 games hitting .300 and SS Anthony Torres is hitting .273 on the season and has four RBI and 21 hits. Eugene starting pitching has been good as left-hander Erik Schhoenrock going 2-2 on the season with a 2.10 ERA, giving up only eight earned runs, 22 hits, one home run while racking up 32 strikeouts. Kyle Lloyd, the right-hander, is 2-1 on the season with a 3.48 ERA and on in 20.2 innings he has given up 22 hits, eight earned runs and four home runs in nine appearances this season.

McCullough believes that for the team to be in a position to make the playoffs the team has to win a series and go on a six or seven game-winning streak. He believes that the team is confident in what they have been able to achieve so far with contributions offensively, big plays on defensive and good pitching but feels that there is still a lot of work ahead of them and it starts tonight against the Eugene Emeralds.  

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