Case of the Tuesdays: Dust Devils Fall to Canadians

Rested and ready for their first game in six days, the Vancouver Canadians (8-10) led all but one inning in handing the Tri-City Dust Devils (8-14) a 10-4 defeat Tuesday night at Gesa Stadium.

3B Ben Gobbel’s two-run 7^th inning home run socked over the left field wall on a cool night in the Tri-Cities proved the big highlight for the Dust Devils, who fell to 0-4 on Tuesdays in 2024 with the loss.

The teams traded two-run bursts early, with Vancouver getting a pair in the top of the 1^st on an RBI single by DH Jackson Hornung that included a throwing error that allowed a second run to score.

Tri-City then tied the game in the bottom of the 2^nd with a dynamic duo of runs, beginning with an RBI double by DH Kevin Bruggeman chopped just fair down the right field line. 2B Andy Blake, who singled and stole second, scored on the play and Bruggeman followed after beating a pickoff throw to steal third and coming home on an RBI groundout by LF Joe Stewart.

The Canadians retook the lead in the 4^th inning by scoring three runs off Dust Devils starter Jorge Marcheco (1-2) and kept the lead for the remainder of the night by adding five runs in their final four at-bats. Reliever Grayson Thurman (1-0) got the win for Vancouver by pitching 1.1 scoreless innings to get through the 5^th inning after taking over for starter Geison Urbaez.

Offensively the Dust Devils tallied six hits, getting multi-hit efforts from Bruggeman (2-2, 2B, 2 BB) and CF Jorge Ruiz (2-4, 2B), who was on board for Gobbel’s blast that got the home nine within an 8-4 score at the time. Both Bruggeman and Gobbel reached base four times on the night, with the latter adding two walks and a hit-by-pitch to his second longball of 2024.

Frustrations boiled over in the 9^th inning with three Tri-City members ejected from the ballgame on a single pitch. Reliever Carlos Espinosa received the heave-ho from home plate umpire Spencer Kim after a pitch came in inside toward Canadians SS Nick Goodwin. Pitcher Chris Clark then expressed his thoughts on the matter in a way for which base umpire Tim Barreras did not care, getting him tossed, and manager Willie Romero got the third and final ejection after a heated argument with Kim.

In all, the first matchup of 2024 between the two teams took three hours and 17 minutes, the longest game of the season for both sides.

Game two of the series will take place earlier than usual, a special 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon matinee at Gesa Stadium, where it will be Weenie Wednesday at the ballpark presented by Vern’s Food Service. Fans can enjoy $2 hot dogs throughout the afternoon’s action, watching Dust Devils right-hander Walbert Ureña (0-2, 4.42 ERA) face off against Vancouver righty Ryan Jennings (0-1, 0.75 ERA).

Broadcast coverage of the game will begin with the pregame show at 1:10 p.m, both here and on the MiLB app as well as video coverage on MiLB.tv.

Tickets for the Vancouver series 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.