Tri-City Dents Scoreboard, Falls to Indians

2B Will McGillis’s first home run of 2024 gave the Tri-City Dust Devils (1-13 2H) a glimmer of offensive hope Friday night, but the Spokane Indians (11-3 2H) used their patented 5^th inning blitz to down the visitors by a score of 9-3 at Avista Stadium.

McGillis, coming back recently from two months out of action due to injury, turned on a pitch from Spokane starter Victor Juarez (3-4) with two on and sent it over the left-center field wall for a three-run blast in the top of the 6^th inning. McGillis’s first home run of 2024 and second of his pro career (both with Tri-City) started a nascent hitting streak at three games and provided the final offense of the game for either side.

The Indians had already done their damage, though, putting seven runs on the board in the 5^th inning to blow open what was a 2-0 game heading in to the frame. Dust Devils starter Joel Hurtado (5-5) took the brunt of the damage, giving up seven runs on five hits and not making it through the 5^th. The first three runs of the inning all reached via charity (dropped third strike, walk, hit-by-pitch), with two-run hits by C Jose Cordova (single) and 3B Jean Perez (double) opening the floodgates.

During the week Spokane has scored 14 runs in the 5^th inning, over half of the 26 runs amassed by the Indians this week.

Tri-City had six hits on the evening, including multi-hit games from 1B Matt Coutney and DH Juan Flores. Also, LF Caleb Ketchup singled and stole his 32^nd base, pushing a hitting streak to four games and extending his Northwest League stolen base lead. Coutney’s night, meanwhile, stretched his latest on-base streak to ten games. On the mound, reliever Jose Fermin threw two scoreless innings to keep Spokane at bay.

The Dust Devils will look to end a six-game losing streak in the final contest of their six-game split series with the Indians, with first pitch scheduled for 5:09 p.m. Saturday night at Avista Stadium. Right-hander Jorge Marcheco (2-5, 5.49 ERA) is scheduled to go for Tri-City, countered by lefty Mason Green (6-4, 2.47 ERA) in a rematch of Monday night’s matchup at Gesa Stadium.

Broadcast coverage of Saturday night’s game begins with the pregame show at 4:50 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app.

The Dust Devils, with all of the minor leagues, take a two-day break following Saturday's action. Following that they head to Hillsboro for a road series with the Hops beginning Tuesday, July 9, and 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 19^th. 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.