The Spokane Indians have already secured home field advantage in the Northwest League championship series with their first-half title.
But there is still a lot at stake, as on Tuesday they hosted the Vancouver Canadians at Avista Stadium, the team closest to the Indians in the standings and the most likely candidate to face them in the five-game league championship series.
The Indians entered the game with a three-game lead over Vancouver in the second half of the standings and a total of 66 wins – just one shy of the season record as their affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.
You have to wait at least one more day to reach the mark.
Adrian Pinto and Je’Von Ward hit home runs and the Indians were held to just six base hits in a 5-0 loss to the Canadians in the opener of a six-game series.
The Indians (28-15) managed five double plays against only two Canadian pitchers. Spokane has a record of 18-5 this season, Vancouver 26-17.
Charlie Condon, the Rockies’ first-round pick — third overall — in this year’s MLB draft, got his first hit at Avista Stadium in the fourth inning, a single through the hole in left. He came into the game with a .286 batting average (6 for 21) with a home run and two doubles in his first five games.
“I feel good, you know,” Condon said. “I just feel good playing with this group in Spokane, and it feels good to be back home.”
He feels like he’s adjusting to professional baseball pretty well.
“I try to take the good and bad things into account game by game and make the necessary adjustments to play my best baseball,” he said.
The Indians’ starter, Victor Juarez, was the unlucky one. He allowed two runs on eight hits and no walks in six innings with eight strikeouts.
“Tough loss for him,” pitching coach Blaine Beatty said of Juarez. “He was lacking execution in some spots. But you know, as young as he is, we’re still moving in the right direction with him. I think his stuff is really solid. It’s just a matter of really executing his throws. And he paid for the throws he missed tonight.”
Juarez’s second pitch of the game turned into a high fly ball from Pinto to left center that flew just over the high wall above the 365-foot sign and gave the second baseman his second home run of the season.
Vancouver scored another run in the third inning when Jace Bohrofen hit a single and scored on a double by Jackson Hornung.
Juarez struck out 10 of the last 13 batters he faced.
“(Juarez) started to get it together,” Beatty said. “We talked a little bit about a strategy there to extend the zone on some bad counts, which made him count three balls, but he went back out and kept doing what we wanted him to do. … He did a good job of closing and keeping us close.”
Indians relief pitcher Felix Ramires hit the first two batters he faced in the seventh inning, but recovered to strike out the next three batters to keep the score at 2-0.
He wasn’t so lucky in the eighth inning, as Ward started the inning with a home run to right, his fifth of the season.
Spokane put runners on the corners when a run was scored in the bottom half, but Jean Perez made it 4-3 on a double play. The Canadians then scored a few more runs in the ninth inning against Sergio Sanchez.
Indians outfielder Cole Carrigg went 0-for-4 and has a batting average of .166 (12-for-72) in his last 19 games.
