Oat Milkers Toast To Another Shutout Win

VANCOUVER, BC – The Malmö Oat Milkers announced their arrival in Vancouver in style Saturday afternoon by shutting out the Tri-City Dust Devils [Angels] 5-0 at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium.

With the C’s assuming an alternate identity for the first time in their High-A era, the Blue Jays affiliate continued their stretch of dominant pitching that had seen them toss two shutouts in the first four games of the series. Rafael Sanchez (W, 2-1) set the tone with five scoreless innings in which he scattered four hits, no walks and six strikeouts to keep the game tied at zero before the Oat Milkers could figure out Dust Devils starter Joel Hurtado (L, 4-4).

The offense got going in the bottom of the fifth. Jackson Hornung led off with an infield single – the first Malmö knock of the day – then Jeff Wehler singled to put two men aboard for Glenn Santiago, who cracked a three-run shot to left field that proved to be the difference.

Leading 3-0, the Oat Milkers sent Johnathan Lavallee (H, 4) and Naswell Paulino (H, 1) to the slope for the sixth and seventh, respectively. They each put up a zero with the latter retiring the side in order before two more Oat Milkers runs would score in the seventh.

With a man at first and two outs, Jommer Hernandez and Dasan Brown hit back-to-back singles to load the bases for Estiven Machado. His two-RBI hit made it 5-0 Malmö. Alex Amalfi took over in the top of the eighth for a 1-2-3 frame then Connor Larkin worked around a hit, a walk and a hit by pitch to get the last three outs and secure the third shutout of the week for the Nat Bailey Stadium faithful.

The win secures a series victory for the Canadians, who have taken four of the first five games, and a season-high four-game winning streak. Machado, Hernandez and Wehler paced the offense with two hits apiece. The C’s starting rotation has now logged 21 consecutive scoreless stanzas and the pitching staff has given up runs in just one of the last 33 innings.

Vancouver and Tri-City will battle it out in the series finale Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m., weather permitting. Updates and information are available at CanadiansBaseball.com.