Winning Streak Snapped In Sunday Defeat

HILLSBORO, OR – The Vancouver Canadians dropped the series finale with the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks) 8-3 Sunday afternoon in their final game at Ron Tonkin Field this season to finish with an 8-10 record at their former home-away-from-home. The loss ended their winning streak at four games, the second time they’ve won four straight this year.

After the Hops got a run in the bottom of the first via a lead-off double, a fly out and a ground out, the C’s answered with two runs in the top of the second. Damiano Palmegiani walked, Garrett Spain singled and Miguel Hiraldo tripled them both home – the fifth Canadians triple in the last two games – to make it 2-1 Vancouver.

The lead lasted all of four pitches. Cam Coursey led off the bottom of the inning with a solo homer on a 3-1 pitch from Naswell Paulino (L, 1-3) and the Hops struck for two more in the fifth to bounce Paulino from the game. They would add another three scores in the seventh and one more in the eighth to put the game away.

Steward Berroa homered in the penultimate inning for his fourth big fly of the season, but the Canadians couldn’t muster any other offense in an 8-3 loss.

Spain had two hits to pace the offense. Anthony Morales doubled in the ninth to extend his hitting streak to four games. Juan Nunez – who pitched for the C’s in parts of three seasons from 2017-19 and resigned with the Blue Jays as a free agent this year – did not surrender an earned run in 1.2 innings of relief, including inheriting the bases loaded with no outs in the sixth and escaping the inning without allowing any of the runners to score.

Despite the loss, the Canadians took the series from the Hops four games to two and have begun the second half with a 2-1 record.

After an off-day Monday, #7 Blue Jays prospect Sem Robberse makes the start on Tuesday night at The Nat to begin a six-game series with Spokane (Rockies) as part of a week-long Canada Day celebration. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. with coverage on CanadiansBaseball.com, MiLB.TV and the Sportsnet Radio Network.