Back-And-Forth Battle Swings Wrong Way Late
EVERETT, WA – The Vancouver Canadians couldn’t complete one last stand in a 9-8 loss against the Everett AquaSox (Mariners) Wednesday night at Funko Field. Trailing 9-8 to start the ninth, Sebastian Espino doubled to put the tying run in scoring position. Zac Cook – already 2-for-4 with a double
EVERETT, WA – The Vancouver Canadians couldn’t complete one last stand in a 9-8 loss against the Everett AquaSox (Mariners) Wednesday night at Funko Field.
Trailing 9-8 to start the ninth, Sebastian Espino doubled to put the tying run in scoring position. Zac Cook – already 2-for-4 with a double – dug in two batters later with the C’s down to their final out, but the runner on base made a surprising steal attempt and was thrown out at third to end the game.
The C’s fell behind by a run after leading 8-7 at the stretch. Tanner Morris singled to start a three-run rally that featured a two-out hit from Phil Clarke (RBI double), a game-tying passed ball and Espino’s RBI infield single that gave them their first – and only – lead of the night.
Everett immediately responded in the home half of the inning with two runs that scored on a two-out, line drive double that went off the glove of a leaping Eric Rivera in the right centerfield gap to give them the lead for good.
Neither team held the lead for longer than two innings. The Frogs scored one in the first and three in the second against C’s newcomer Alejandro Melean, but Vancouver brought out the power bats in the top of the third to tie the game. Rafael Lantigua led off the inning with a solo blast, Morris singled to extend his hitting streak to 20 games and Spencer Horwitz – with his streak already at the 20 game mark thanks to a first inning double – hit a titanic home run over the netting in right field to pull the Canadians within a run. Up stepped Orelvis Martinez, who slugged his third home run in as many days to even the score 4-4. It was the third time the C’s have gone back-to-back this season and the second time they’ve hit three home runs in an inning in the last two weeks (back-to-back-to-back on August 19).
The AquaSox promptly retook the lead with a run in the bottom of the third but Vancouver retied the game in the top of the fourth when Morris’ sacrifice fly followed a Cook double and Lantigua infield single. A Cade Marlowe two-run homer in the sixth had the Frogs back in front 7-5 and set up the late game drama.
Vancouver pounded out 14 hits – double-digits for the eighth consecutive game against the ‘Sox – but went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position. Horwitz led the offense with six total bases on two hits, scored twice, drove in a pair and added two walks for a league-leading 68 on the season. Morris not only has a hit in 20 consecutive games but has now reached base in 29 straight games and 46 of his last 48. Clarke’s two hits give him six knocks in the first two games of the series and he’s raised his average 20 points since the start of August, when he hit .282.