Dust Devils Offense Stained in Spokane
The bats of the Tri-City Dust Devils (1-12 2H) got all they wanted and then some on an Independence Day Thursday night from Spokane Indians (10-3 2H) starter Connor Staine, who used his arm to hammer at hitters and gain his club a 2-0 win in front of a sellout
The bats of the Tri-City Dust Devils (1-12 2H) got all they wanted and then some on an Independence Day Thursday night from Spokane Indians (10-3 2H) starter Connor Staine, who used his arm to hammer at hitters and gain his club a 2-0 win in front of a sellout crowd at Avista Stadium.
Visiting Spokane for the first time in 2024, Tri-City hoped to turn the offensive tide on the road after shutouts at the hands of the Indians the previous two nights. Instead, they found themselves held to two hits and often put down easily by Staine (4-4), who retired 16 of the last 17 Dust Devils he faced and made sure the road side had nothing about which to cheer and shout.
Tri-City starter Ryan Costeiu showed great resolve in his return to the mound after missing his last start, striking out five in four innings and stranding two runners at third to keep the Indians off the board. His chosen method of holding Spokane at bay, a combination of Ks and outs on the infield, worked to short-circuit any pressure he faced from the Indians lineup.
Houston Harding (0-1) followed him, coming off a spot start in which he threw five scoreless innings last Saturday in Eugene, but Spokane got to him for a pair of runs in the bottom of the 5th, again with two outs as it was Wednesday night at Gesa Stadium.
SS Dyan Jorge drove in the first run by smacking a single just underneath Dust Devils 1B Matt Coutney and into right field, scoring Indians CF Cole Carrigg to break the ice. Jorge then caused havoc on the basepaths with RF Zac Veen at the plate, timing the throw back to the mound from C Juan Flores and sprinting for third with the ball in the air. Harding grabbed it and threw over but it skipped past and down the left field line, an error that allowed Jorge to score from third for a 2-0 lead that held the rest of the way.
The visitors mustered two hits on the night, with LF Caleb Ketchup removing Staine’s no-hitter chances early with a single to right for Tri-City in the 2nd inning. CF Landon Wallace later grounded a ball deep into the hole at short and sprinted out an infield single in the 8th to bring the potential tying run to the plate for the Dust Devils.
Finally, reliever Carlos Espinosa threw a quick 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the frame to give his team one more chance at the plate.
Trying to clear vivid memories of shutouts past and embark on a new era, Tri-City takes on Spokane in game two of their three-game set at 7:05 p.m. Friday night at Avista Stadium. Right-hander Joel Hurtado (5-4, 4.50 ERA) takes the hill for the Dust Devils and righty Victor Juarez (2-4, 4.83 ERA) counters for the Indians.
Broadcast coverage of Friday’s tilt begins with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app.
Tri-City’s series with Spokane goes through Saturday, followed by a two-day break and a road series in Hillsboro leading up to the All-Star Break. Tri-City then returns post-break with a three-game set against the Eugene Emeralds at Gesa Stadium starting Friday night, July 19th.
Tickets for the Eugene 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.