Hip, Hip, Jorge! Ruiz Walks Off Canadians

RF Jorge Ruiz’s two-run single with one out in the bottom of the 9^th inning gave the Tri-City Dust Devils (9-15) a thrilling 3-2 walk-off win over the Vancouver Canadians (9-11) Thursday night at Gesa Stadium, setting off a celebratory chase of Ruiz to the outfield.

The hit, slashed by the lefty off a pitch from Vancouver reliever Chay Yeager (0-2), rolled through the left side the opposite way and in to left field, scoring both 3B Matt Coutney and CF Werner Blakely for the team’s first walk-off win of the season. Coutney doubled to start the 9^th and Blakely walked, with 1B Mason Martin laying down a bunt for a hit to load the bases with no one out.

Cam Minacci (1-2) pitched a scoreless top of the 9^th inning, earning his first professional win. He and Dylan Phillips, Jared Southard and Brady Choban combined to throw 4.1 innings of scoreless, one-hit relief. Choban has not allowed an earned run in his last five outings, and Phillips has not allowed a hit in last three trips to the mound.

Outside of Tri-City’s 9^th inning rally the scoring was limited to the 5^th, with the Canadians plating a pair of runs off Dust Devils starter Chris Clark and knocking him out of the game. Vancouver starter Chris McElvain gave up an RBI double to LF Joe Stewart in the bottom of the 5^th which cut the visitors’ lead in half but preserved the lead as part of six innings of one-run ball.

Stewart had Tri-City’s only multi-hit game on the night, an infield single preceding his run-scoring double that brought C Ronaldo Flores home from second for the Dust Devils’ first run of the game. 2B Ben Gobbel also singled in the 8^th inning, extending a nascent hitting streak to four games.

Tri-City will look now to even the series in game four of their six-game series with Vancouver at 6:30 p.m. Friday night at Gesa Stadium, where it’s a Family Feast Night presented by Roto-Rooter. Fans can get hot dogs, 12 oz. Coca-Cola products, ice cream sandwiches, chips and Laffy Taffy ropes for $2 all game long. Friday night’s game also begins a Viñeros de Tri-City weekend, with redesigned jerseys and hats worn by the club for the first time in 2024.

Southpaw Erik Rivera (0-0, 2.13 ERA) has been scheduled to start for the Dust Devils, with the Canadians countering with right-hander Kevin Miranda (1-1, 3.55 ERA). Broadcast coverage of the game begins with the pregame show at 6:10 p.m, both here and on the MiLB app as well as video coverage on MiLB.tv.

Tickets for Friday night's game and the Viñeros weekend 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.