Hernandez and C's head home to face Aquasox, Emeralds
Before we look ahead, here is a quick re-cap from Monday night's victory.
From Canadians Press Release:
(Volcanoes Stadium - Keizer, OR) - The Vancouver Canadians (8-3) managed their third straight series victory on Monday night as the offense pounded out 17 hits en route to a decisive 8-5 win over the Volcanoes (2-9). Canadians DH Roan Salas led the way going 4-for-4 in the victory.
Vancouver's offense got rolling early with 2B Jon Berti providing the big blow in the top of the 3rd inning when his single to left scored both C Pierce Rankin and DH Roan Salas giving the Canadians a 6-0 lead.
The bats kept swinging for the C's in the top of the 7th inning as 1B Balbino Fuenmayor doubled to lead off and scored on a triple from RF Nick Baligod. Having hardly the time to catch his breath, Baligod would come in to count on an RBI single to center field from Salas who had his name all over Monday night's scorecard.
With the C's up 8-0, Salem-Keizer found their stride in the bottom of the 7th inning plating five runs with SS Joe Panik hitting his first professional grand slam cutting Vancouver's lead to 8-5.
That was all the offense Salem would muster as RHP Drew Permison came into slam the door for his 4th save of the summer giving the Canadians their third straight series victory and improving to 8-3 (.727) in the process.
So, with the formalities now out of the way - let's look ahead to the Aquasox.
Vancouver faced the two aces of the Everett pitching staff just a few days back and beat both LHP Tony Butler and RHP Vincente Campos to take their first road series of the summer.
The Aquasox, now coming off of their fifth straight loss, will likely count on both Butler and Campos to bounce back and exact revenge on the C's who trotted out LHP Justin Nicolino and RHP Jesse Hernandez who gets the ball tonight out at Scotiabank Field.
Hernandez dazzled vs. Everett, but will have to count on his defense showing up as the ground ball pitcher looks for his first win of the season.
OF Steve McQuail had a whale of a series vs. Everett including a towering home run that helped vancouver to a 9-3 victory this past Thursday.
Expect the table setters (Jon Jones and Shane Opitz) to be counted on to get in scoring position for McQuail and Balbino Fuenmayor and let the chips fall where they fall.
The Venezuelan-born Fuenmayor has caught fire since an early season slump going 5-for-12 (.417) over his past three games.
Once through the Aquasox, the Canadians may be embarking on the series of the season as the division leading Eugene Emeralds come knocking.
Stacked with top-end talent and first-rounders like Donovan Tate, the C's will have to be on their best behaviour to leap the Ems into first place in the West.
Remember, this 38-game first half will likely need 25 wins to nab the first half pennant. Right now, based on that number, the Canadians would have to go 17-10 (.630) the rest of the half to put themselves in a good position to grab the first half pennant. The tricky part comes in the fact that of those 27 remaining first half games, 12 of them are against the Emeralds.
Translation?
One of these teams will likely win the first half pennant, but won't have to check the out-of-town scoreboard as the battle will be won on the field.