Dust Devils Deterred by Canadians
Two separate two-out rallies by the Vancouver Canadians (39-26 2H, 77-53) proved too much for the Tri-City Dust Devils (23-40 2H, 57-72) Saturday night, as the visitors nabbed a 9-1 victory in front of 3,311 fans at Gesa Stadium to clinch a share of a series split. Neither team scored
Two separate two-out rallies by the Vancouver Canadians (39-26 2H, 77-53) proved too much for the Tri-City Dust Devils (23-40 2H, 57-72) Saturday night, as the visitors nabbed a 9-1 victory in front of 3,311 fans at Gesa Stadium to clinch a share of a series split.
Neither team scored in the first two innings, with both sides sending out starters on limited pitch counts. Tri-City hurler Erik Rivera struck out three in his pair of scoreless frames, with the lefty helping his cause in the 2nd by inducing a comebacker which he turned into a 1-4-3 double play. Vancouver starter Ryan Jennings matched Rivera by working around two hits to post a pair of zeroes.
The tops of both the 3rd and 5th innings were where the Canadians both got on the board and stretched the lead. RBI singles in the 3rd by 1B Peyton Williams, C Lyle Lin and RF Glenn Santiago off Dust Devils reliever Will Sandy (0-1) established a 3-0 lead. Vancouver then doubled the advantage in the 5th with another Santiago RBI single and a two-run single by SS Estiven Machado, making it 6-0, and plated a run in the top of the 6th for a 7-0 lead.
Canadians pitcher Anders Tolhurst (4-1) followed Jennings with three scoreless innings, giving up only two hits and striking out four. Tri-City would get on the board the inning after his departure via a lucky break. CF Joe Redfield singled to lead off the bottom of the 6th and DH Gustavo Campero followed with a grounder to Machado on the left side. The Vancouver shortstop’s throw went wide into right field, giving Redfield time to move up to third. Santiago, backing up the play, threw to get Campero off the bag at first. The toss ended up, in a sense, too accurate, with the ball hitting Campero and bouncing toward second base. Redfield printed home to make it at the time a 7-1 game.
Back-to-back home runs in the 9th inning by Williams and DH Cade Doughty, seeing his first action of the week, capped the night offensively for the Canadians. The Dust Devils collected nine hits on the night, including a 2 for 4 game from 3B Werner Blakely. The home nine, though, could not find the string of hits to put together a major rally, and the Vancouver pitching staff thwarted any chances to get back in the game by striking out 16 Tri-City batters on the night.
Despite the loss, many of the Dust Devils faithful comprising the second largest crowd of the season at Gesa Stadium stuck around to enjoy postgame fireworks presented by Toyota.
More postgame fireworks, presented by CO-Energy, are scheduled for Sunday night’s season finale between Tri-City and Vancouver at 6:30 p.m. Sunday night at Gesa Stadium, with the series finale serving also as the 2023 season finale for the home side. The Dust Devils have announced right-hander Keythel Key (0-1, 1.80 ERA) as their starter, and the Canadians will look to right-hander Rafael Sanchez (0-8, 5.50 ERA) to take the ball.
Broadcast coverage will begin with the pregame show at 6:10 p.m., both here and at the MiLB First Pitch app.
Tickets for both Sunday's season finale are on sale now, with special ticket rates available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, as well as securing tickets for the 2024 season, visit dustdevilsbaseball.com, call the team office at (509) 544-8789, or visit the team office (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on game nights, or Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. otherwise).