Dust Devils Bested by Indians in Pitchers' Duel
Braden Olthoff twirled his second straight quality start at Spokane’s Avista Stadium Tuesday night, but the Spokane Indians (12-10) defeated the Tri-City Dust Devils in a 2-1 pitchers’ duel. Olthoff (1-1) went six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits. He walked two and struck out four,
Braden Olthoff twirled his second straight quality start at Spokane’s Avista Stadium Tuesday night, but the Spokane Indians (12-10) defeated the Tri-City Dust Devils in a 2-1 pitchers’ duel.
Olthoff (1-1) went six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits. He walked two and struck out four, retiring the last ten Indians he faced.
He was bettered, though, by Spokane’s Mike Ruff (3-1), who gave up one run on seven hits over 7.1 strong innings of work. He struck out eight Tri-City batters, while issuing only one walk.
The Dust Devils scored their run in the 2nd inning. Gabe Matthews, who went 3 for 4 on the night, doubled to left-center to lead off the inning. After moving to third base on a groundball out, Mike Peabody lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Matthews and tying the game at 1-1.
The Indians would score what ended up the winning run in the bottom of the 2nd. After Robby Martin, Jr., struck out, Kyle Lovelace fired a pickoff throw from behind the plate, straight down the line to third. The throw hit the helmet of baserunner Daniel Montaño and careened into left field. Montaño jogged home, giving Spokane a 2-1 lead that they kept the rest of the game.
For Tri-City Kyle Kasser and Francisco Del Valle each had two hits, and Jose Guzman added a hit, his third in two games. Ryan Costeiu pitched two more innings of scoreless relief, pushing his scoreless innings streak to nine.
Game two of the six-game series takes place at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday in Spokane. Jake Smith is scheduled to start for the Dust Devils, with Tony Locey to counter for Spokane.
The Dust Devils will return home May 10th to Gesa Stadium, hosting the Everett AquaSox for a six-game series. Single game tickets 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.