Magic Number Down To One Despite C's Loss
VANCOUVER, BC – An 8-5 Canadians loss at the hands of the Eugene Emeralds (Giants) Tuesday night at The Nat added at least one more day to the half-decade wait between C’s playoff appearances, but they still managed to inch closer to their first postseason since 2017 after Tri-City (Angels)
VANCOUVER, BC – An 8-5 Canadians loss at the hands of the Eugene Emeralds (Giants) Tuesday night at The Nat added at least one more day to the half-decade wait between C’s playoff appearances, but they still managed to inch closer to their first postseason since 2017 after Tri-City (Angels) blanked Spokane (Rockies) 5-0 at Gesa Stadium in Pasco, WA.
A six-run top of the second – an inning in which every run was unearned - seemed to continue the trend of one-sided games that favor Eugene between these two teams that began when the Ems took five of six at PK Park last month. Despite the crooked number, Vancouver’s offense went right to work in the bottom half of that inning and scored two unearned runs of their own. Gabby Martinez reached on a dropped fly ball in the left centerfield gap to start the frame then a single plus a walk loaded the bases. After a strikeout, Miguel Hiraldo plated the first Canadians run with a sacrifice fly before 2022 draftee Michael Turconi collected his first High-A RBI with a two-out single in the next at-bat to cut the deficit to four.
Three runs in the third brought the C’s within a single score. Dasan Brown sparked the rally with a lead-off single, Damiano Palmegiani joined him aboard after he was hit by a pitch and Rainer Nunez smacked a single up the middle to make it 6-3. Martinez singled in the next at-bat to load the bases, Andres Sosa followed with a run-scoring ground out and PK Morris contributed a sacrifice fly that made it 6-5, though Vancouver stranded the potential tying run on second base.
That would be the closest the Canadians would get. Eugene buoyed their lead with a run in the fourth then Naswell Paulino came on and logged 2.1 scoreless innings of relief that featured no hits and six strikeouts to keep Vancouver within a bloop and a blast. Those hits never came; the C’s stranded multiple runners on base in the seventh, eighth – the same frame the Emeralds scored a huge insurance run to go up by three – and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth but couldn’t quite muster a comeback in an 8-5 defeat.
Brown, Nunez and Martinez paced the offense – which finished with 10 hits – with two knocks apiece. The C’s have made 77 hits in their last eight games.
Despite the loss, a C’s win tomorrow night or a Spokane loss would clinch the second spot in the 2022 Northwest League Championship series for Vancouver. The Canadians last made the playoffs in 2017 as Toronto’s Short-Season A club when they beat the Emeralds three games to one and clinched their fourth league title in their first seven seasons as a Blue Jays affiliate.