House of Pain: Dust Devils Swept in Friday Doubleheader at the Nat

Two differently tight ballgames ended in similarly heartbreaking fashion for the Tri-City Dust Devils (22-26) Friday afternoon at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium, where the Vancouver Canadians (22-23) swept a doubleheader by taking two one-run games by scores of 1-0 and 4-3.

Game one developed as a pitchers’ duel, with left-hander Erik Rivera giving Tri-City his best start as a pro by throwing five scoreless innings. The southpaw from Caguas, Puerto Rico allowed only three hits, striking out five while walking just two. Vancouver starter Ryan Jennings matched Rivera with five scoreless frames of his own, though, and the game remained tied to the bottom of the 7^th.

Dust Devils reliever Jared Southard (2-2), who worked out of a bases loaded jam in the 6^th inning, attempted to take the game to extra innings but the Canadians would deny him the chance, scoring the winning run on a fielder’s choice to take the first game 1-0. Vancouver hurler Anders Tolhurst (4-1) got the win by throwing two innings of scoreless relief.

The second game of the twinbill looked for the visitors offensively similar to game one most of the way, with goose eggs adorning the scoreboard for the first six innings. The home nine, meanwhile, compiled a 4-0 lead beginning with an unearned run in the bottom of the 1^st. Tri-City starter Leonard Garcia (2-2) walked Canadians CF Dasan Brown, who stole second and then came all the way around via two errors on the attempt to catch him.

A three-run 4^th inning burst extended the lead for Vancouver starter Chris McElvain (3-2), who escaped a bases loaded, one-out situation in the top of the 6^th to complete six scoreless innings. The never-say-die Dust Devils kept grinding, though, finally finding success in their last at-bat.

There, in the top of the 7^th, Tri-City scored three times to end a stretch of 23.2 innings without a run and give themselves a great comeback chance. 3B Andy Blake began the effort with a single to center off Canadians reliever Rafael Ohashi, with SS Caleb Ketchup drawing a walk to advance to second. CF Werner Blakely then lined an RBI single to right to end the shutout streak and drive Ohashi out of the game, and 1B Matt Coutney followed with a two-run double to right-center that scored Ketchup and Blakely to make it a 4-3 game.

Coutney stood at second with no one out as the potential tying run, stuck there by two outs afterwards. C Caleb Pendleton, however, kept the game going with a two-out walk that made him the potential go-ahead run at first. Jadiel Sanchez came in to pinch-hit for LF Joe Stewart, putting the game on his bat, but Vancouver reliever Grayson Thurman induced a grounder back to the mound that he knocked down and tossed to first to complete the sweep.

The losses continued a tough trend for Tri-City at historic Nat Bailey Stadium in the long-season Northwest League era, with the Dust Devils falling to 5-22 in games played north of the border since it reopened in 2022 following a two-year closure due to the COVID pandemic.

Tri-City will dust themselves off and get back to work in game five of their six-game set with Vancouver at 1:05 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Nat. The Dust Devils will send right-hander Joel Hurtado (4-3, 5.74 ERA) to the mound, looking for his fourth straight win, and the Canadians will reply with righty Rafael Sanchez (1-1, 6.00 ERA).

Broadcast coverage will begin with the pregame show at 12:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon, both here and on the MiLB app.

Tri-City returns home on Tuesday, June 4, to begin a six-game series against the Eugene Emeralds at Gesa Stadium. It’s another Coca-Cola Tuesday, with $2.50 21 oz. Coca-Cola products for fans to enjoy throughout the ballgame.

Tickets for the Eugene series 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, visit the team’s official ticketing site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.