Tribe Turns Tables With Offensive Outburst

SPOKANE VALLEY -- The Spokane Indians are not about to let the Hillsboro Hops come into their house and rip the the Northwest League's first-half title out from under their noses.

An expected pitcher's duel between the top lefthanded starters in the league didn't really materialize Thursday night. The Indians (28-21) hit Hops ace Spencer Giesting hard from the get-go, but it took one big inning for the game to get away. The Tribe batted around in the sixth, scoring six runs off three Hops pitchers on the way to a 9-4 victory at Avista Stadium.

With Eugene's 4-2, 10-inning win at Tri-City, the Indians maintained their slim one game lead over the Emeralds and extended their lead over the third-place Hops (26-26) to three games with 12 games remaining before the first-half cutoff.

Spokane southpaw Sean Sullivan (3-2) got the better of the battle of lefty slingers. The 2nd-rounder out of Wake Forest fanned eight Hops with one walk over six innings, surrendering four hits. But after Sullivan delivered his 90th and final pitch, he walked to the clubhouse with a 3-1 deficit.

The Hops lead wouldn't last long. The Indians, who left runners in scoring position in three prior innings, quickly loaded the bases with none out on a Juan Guerrero infield hit, a hit batter and a Jesus Ordonez single. Giesting (4-3), who had escaped a two-on, none out jam in the fourth thanks to a near triple play, would not pull another Houdini. Jesus Bugarin smashed a double to the left field corner to plate the tying runs and that would be it for the third-year lefty.

Giesting surrendered a career-high nine hits over 5-plus innings and hit two batters for the first time in his career, finishing with four strikeouts. Eli Saul, pitching for the second consecutive night, got a big first out, when Jose Cordova tapped back to the mound and the runners at second and third had to hold. With one out and the game tied at 3, Jean Perez squared to bunt as Ordonez broke for home. The bunt was a good one and Saul's only play was to first, but he threw wide of the mark for an error as the go-ahead run scored.

A wild pitch sent Bugarin home from third to make it 5-3 Spokane. Then after a deep fly out to left and a walk to rehabbing shortstop Jack Blomgren, Kyle Karros hit a sharp ground ball toward second baseman Manny Pena. What would have likely been the final out of the inning, turned into an RBI single when Saul got in the way, deflecting the ball past Pena into shallow left as Perez raced home with the fourth run of the inning.

That would be it for Saul. Listher Sosa came out of the pen to try to get the final out, but unleashed another wild pitch, sending Blomgren to third. Guerrero then collected his second hit of the inning with a single to left, scoring Blomgren. The inning would end when Karros was thrown out at third by left fielder Jack Hurley, but the damage was done as the Indians took a 7-3 lead into the seventh inning.

Hillsboro got one run back on a Kevin Sim solo home run off reliever Davison Palermo in the seventh, but that's as close as the Hops would get. The Indians added two insurance runs in the eighth off Jhosmer Alvarez on a two-RBI Karros single, the former UCLA Bruin pushing his NWL-leading RBI total to 34 with a three-hit night.

Jake Snider hit his second home run of the series to lead off the second inning, giving Spokane a 1-0 lead. The Hops answered with a Hurley solo shot leading off the fourth. That was the Hops' only hit until the sixth inning.

Giesting gave up several hard-hit balls throughout the game. Following Snider's oppo blast, Ordonez ripped a hard ground ball down the third base line, but Jose Fernandez made a great diving backhand stop and threw him out. Bugarin followed with a stinging shot to deep left that Hurley lost in the sun as it one-hopped the wall for a double. Cordova followed with a blast to right that lined up with Conticello and Giesting was able to escape the inning when Perez grounded out sharply to short.

Guerrero opened the fourth inning with his fourth double of the series. Snider followed with a single to center putting runners at the corner and none out. Ordonez followed with a ground ball to the left of Fernandez at third. With Guerrero dancing off the bag, Fernandez looked to third then went to second for teh force on Snider. Guerrero made a break for the plate, but Pena fired home to Christian Cerda, who tagged him out. Then Ordonez tried to take second. Cerda threw back to Pena at the bag in time but the ball sneaked out of his glove as he tried to apply the tag. The Hops were that close to a triple play and Giesting slipped away unharmed after striking out Bugarin to end the inning.

Sullivan, meanwhile, cruised into the sixth inning having allowed just three baserunners. With two outs and nobody on base and eight consecutive Hops retired, Hurley singled to right field and Andrew Pintar followed with a grounder just out of the reach of the first baseman Cordova. With two on and two outs, Conticello laced a shot to the wall in left center for a double, plating two runs to give Hillsboro a brief 3-1 lead.

Giesting has allowed 16 hits and seven runs over 12 innings in his last two starts. In his prior five starts, he allowed a total of 13 hits and five runs over 31 innings pitches.

Guerrero had four hits, extending his hitting streak to ten games to lead Spokane's 15 hit attack. It was the most hits by a Hops opponent this season one night after the Hops had season highs of 11 runs and 17 hits. Hurley had two of Hillsboro's six hits, his second consecutive multi-hit game.

The Hops and Indians meet in game four of the series Friday night. Pregame airtime is at 6:20 p.m. with first pitch at 6:35 on Rip City Radio 620 AM.