Salvador, Dust Devils Shut Out Canadians

Jose Salvador set the tone with a stellar outing, and Zach Neto got a big hit late as the Tri-City Dust Devils (12-19 2H, 41-53) shut out the Vancouver Canadians (18-12 2H, 48-45) Tuesday night 3-0 at Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium.

Salvador (2-6) went 5.2 scoreless innings, giving up just two hits and striking out eight Canadians batters. The lefty from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic walked three but worked around them, not allowing a runner into scoring position.

Salvador’s win, which broke a personal five game losing streak, was his first since June 17 when he threw seven shutout innings against Everett. He has received a decision in each of his eight starts at the High-A level.

Tri-City opened the scoring in the top of the 3rd inning. Christian Sepulveda led off the inning with a double to left-center field, his first hit at the High-A level. Christian Molfetta then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Sepulveda to third base.

Following a strikeout, Vancouver starter Naswell Paulino (2-5) hit Zach Neto with a pitch with two out, extending the inning and bringing Osmy Gregorio to the plate. Gregorio hit a grounder up the middle that found its way through to center field, scoring Sepulveda for a 1-0 Dust Devils lead.

Paulino gave up only the one run in three innings of work, getting a spot start due to the Canadians’ scheduled starter Nick Frasso getting traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers organization before Tuesday afternoon’s trade deadline.

Tri-City would get runners in scoring position in the 6th and the 7th innings, but they could not get them home. Vancouver’s offense, meanwhile, struggled to muster a threat until the 8th inning when they got runners on first and second with one out. Reliever Dylan King, following Emilker Guzman’s 1.1 innings of scoreless relief, got back-to-back strikeouts to end the 8th and strand the two runners.

The Dust Devils then got two big insurance runs in the 9th inning off Canadians reliever Jol Concepcion, who struck out the first two batters he faced and then walked the bases loaded.

That brought Zach Neto back up, who dropped a two-run single into left center to score Sepulveda and Molfetta for the 3-0 lead and final score.

Glenn Albanese pitched a scoreless 9th to complete the shutout and get his fifth save of the year.

Highlight-wise, Christian Sepulveda had his best night as a Dust Devil, going 2 for 4 with two doubles and a walk, scoring twice. Osmy Gregorio also had two hits, and Zach Neto reached base three times in Tri-City’s third straight win.

The Dust Devils will go for their fourth straight win at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday night at Nat Bailey Stadium. A pair of righties face off, with Zac Kristofak (1-2, 2.96 ERA) starting for Tri-City and Michael Dominguez (0-0, 3.00 ERA) going for Vancouver in game two of the six-game series.

The game broadcast begins with the King Beverage Budweiser Pregame Show at 6:50 p.m. at dustdevilsbaseball.com and the MiLB First Pitch app.

Tickets for the Dust Devils' next home series, August 9-14 against the Everett AquaSox, and all games are on sale now. Ticket packages are also available and start at just $99, and special ticket rates are available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit dustdevilsbaseball.com or call 509-544-8789.