Walks, Hit Batters Cost Hops In Opener At Spokane

A lot of the players may have changed, but the Avista Stadium mystique apparently still lingers for the HIllsboro Hops. Back in May, two Hops starting pitchers failed to make it out of the first inning and another hung around into the fourth despite being pummeled for four home runs and six extra base hits.

An old bugaboo reappeared for the Hops (15-22 second half, 39-64 overall) Tuesday night at the Northwest League's most capacious yard as five Hillsboro hurlers combined to issue 11 free passes in a 7-2 loss to the Spokane Indians (16-21, 40-63) in the first game of a six-game series in Spokane Valley.

Each team had eight hits on the night, with Wilderd Patino contributing a pair of doubles and David Martin hitting his second Hops homer and third of the season. But a combination of three first inning walks and three second inning hit batters along with a run-scoring wild pitch provided the Tribe with all the offense they would need.

It didn't seem that way as Hillsboro hung around into the late innings thanks to Spokane's inability to deliver the backbreaking blow. The Tribe left 14 runners on the bags including bases loaded twice.

However, Spokane catcher Ronaiker Palma snuffed out a couple Hops rallies, gunning down three attempted base stealers, all ending innings. The Venezuelan backstop also contributed two RBI on a bases loaded walk and an RBI ground out.

The home contingent finally heaved a sigh of relief when Spokane plated two insurance runs in the eighth inning with a walk also factoring into that frame.

Hops starter Dylan Ray (6-5) dropped his second consecutive decision, walking three and allowing two hits and two runs in in the first inning before departing with two outs. Ray has failed to pitch out of the first inning in each of his two starts at Avista Stadium and fell to 0-3 against the Indians this season. Ray saw his season earned run average shoot to 4.06 as he fell to 6-6 on the season. Against Spokane, the Alabaman righty has a 27.00 ERA in three starts, with five strikeouts and eight bases on balls in 4 2/3 innings. Against the rest of the NWL, Ray is 6-3 with a 2.71 ERA with 97 strikeouts, 22 walks and just 59 hits allowed in 79 2/3 innings pitched. Spokane has accounted for more than 35 percent of the earned runs he has allowed this season.

Spokane starting pitcher Cullen Kafka, a former Oregon Duck, was likewise ineffective, removed after 2 2/3 innings after surrendering two runs on five hits and three walks with two strikeouts. But Evan Shawver (2-3) came on to pitch three scoreless innings of relief, fanning five to earn the victory. The southpaw benefitted from the first of Palma's three peg-jobs as Andrew Pintar tried to advance on a pitch in the dirt with Junior Franco breaking for home. Palma had blocked a similar pitch out in front of the plate and in the opposite batters' box on the prior Shawver offering. No balls got past Palma on this night and no Hillsboro base runners took an extra base on his watch.

The Hops plated a run in the first after a leadoff Patino double off the left field wall, a rocket single to right by Tommy Troy and an RBI ground out from David Martin. The Hops put two more on base in the first on walks but stranded three on the bases.

Spokane capitalized on the three Ray walks in the first, two with the bases loaded, but also benefited from a Benny Montgomery infield hit and a bunt single by Juan Guerrero. Listher Sosa fanned Ben Sems, leaving the sacks jammed after Palma and Nic Kent forced in runs with walks. Three Indians batters went down looking with the bases loaded in that inning.

Sosa lost his way in the second, hitting three men with another, Braiden Ward, doing his best to lean into one, claiming to have been hit on a called third strike. With A.J. Lewis aboard and one out, Montgomery got hit on the arm on the very next pitch and initially was not awarded first base. After much chipping from Spokane manager Robinson Cancel and the Spokane dugout, the call was eventually overruled and Montgomery given his base. Guerrero followed with a hit to load the bases before shortstop Ryan Ritter got drilled to force in Lewis. A wild pitch plated Montgomery and the Indians were on the verge of running away when Jamari Baylor hit a two-out rocket toward short. Troy made a fine backhand snag and threw him out to keep the Hops solvent.

in the fifth, Hillsboro put Shawver on the ropes after Patino's second double, a two-out beaning of Christian Cerda and a walk to Franco to load the bases. But the former Cincinnati Bearcat southpaw retired Pintar on a harmless fly out to center.

Spokane right fielder Braiden Ward did plenty of Braiden Ward things on Tuesday. The blisteringly speedy former Washington Husky scored the first run after a leadoff walk in the first, then held Manuel Pena to a single after playing the Hops' second baseman's leadoff hit in the second off the right field wall perfectly. Pena would promptly be erased on a double play, extinguishing a potential scoring inning.

In the sixth, Ward led off the inning with a bunt single off Carlos Meza, advanced to second on a balk, stole third without a throw, then trotted home on a wild pitch to give Spokane a 5-2 lead. In the seventh inning, the old-school energizer turned back the clock about 80 years with a slap hit down the third base line for a double, something straight out of the softball playbook that used to be a big part of the game in the early part of the 20th century.

Still trailing by three in the eighth, Hillsboro put the first two aboard on a Jean Walters double down the third base line--no run-up needed--and a base hit to right by Franco. Brayan Castillo proceeded to fan the next two Hops batters before Franco broke for second and was gunned down by Palma to end the inning.

The Tribe put it away in the eighth, plating two off Peniel Otano following a leadoff double by Ritter and a walk to Kent, both scoring on ground outs later in the inning after pulling off a double-steal.

The Indians and Hops return Wednesday night for game two, with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m., pregame airtime at 6:20 on Rip City Radio 620 AM.