Tri-City Thwarted by Vancouver
The offense of the Tri-City Dust Devils (8-15) found themselves flummoxed by the pitching of the Vancouver Canadians (9-10) Wednesday afternoon, mustering just three hits in a 5-0 loss on a sunny spring day at Gesa Stadium. Two hits came off the bat of 3B Ben Gobbel, who continued a
The offense of the Tri-City Dust Devils (8-15) found themselves flummoxed by the pitching of the Vancouver Canadians (9-10) Wednesday afternoon, mustering just three hits in a 5-0 loss on a sunny spring day at Gesa Stadium.
Two hits came off the bat of 3B Ben Gobbel, who continued a torrid stretch at the plate by going 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. The Georgian, over the last 11 games, holds a .351 batting average (13-for-37) with a home run, three doubles and nine RBI. 2B Andy Blake added an infield single in the 2nd, the first hit of the game for Tri-City. The home nine, though, could not push a run across, going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Starter Walbert Ureña (0-3) kept the game close early but ran into trouble in the top of the 4th, giving up four runs that staked Vancouver to a large lead. Ureña hurt his own cause when a throw home on a bases loaded grounder to the mound went just wide enough for it to bounce off the glove of C Ronaldo Flores, turning a possible double play into a run scored. Canadians 2B Jeff Wehler struck the big hit later in the frame, a 3-run double to left that took a 2-0 lead into the 5-0 final margin.
Canadians hurler Ryan Jennings went four shutout innings, allowing only one hit but not going long enough to get the win. Reliever Rafael Ohashi (2-0) went three more shutout behind him to get the win.
Dust Devils reliever Leonard Garcia had another strong outing, throwing three scoreless innings and allowing only two hits while striking out four. The lefty from Barcelona, Venezuela has now thrown 10.2 innings to begin his 2024, giving up just two unearned runs and striking out 15. Northwest League hitters have hit just .121 against the southpaw so far.
Tri-City and Vancouver will get set for game three of their six-game set at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night at Gesa Stadium, where it will be Breast Cancer Awareness Night presented by Inland Imaging. Two right-handers sharing the same first name, Chris Clark (0-2, 3.09 ERA) for the Dust Devils and Chris McElvain (0-2, 5.25 ERA) for the Canadians, get the start for their respective clubs.
Broadcast coverage of the game will begin with the pregame show at 6:10 p.m, both here and on the MiLB app as well as video coverage on MiLB.tv.
Tickets for the Vancouver series, including the upcoming Viñeros weekend, 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.