Gallagher Galvanizes C's To Shutout Win

Starter goes five strong, Vancouver blanks Tri-City 2-0

(Mark Steffens - Fotoguy Photography)

By Tyler Zickel

July 31, 2024

VANCOUVER, BC – Pat Gallagher set the tone with five stout stanzas to lead the Canadians to a High-A era franchise best-12th shutout win of the year Tuesday night, a 2-0 triumph over the Tri-City Dust Devils [LAA] at The Nat. At first blush, Gallagher didn’t seem destined for one

VANCOUVER, BC – Pat Gallagher set the tone with five stout stanzas to lead the Canadians to a High-A era franchise best-12^th shutout win of the year Tuesday night, a 2-0 triumph over the Tri-City Dust Devils [LAA] at The Nat.

At first blush, Gallagher didn’t seem destined for one of his best outings of the year. The righty gave up a lead-off single – though promptly picked that runner off – then walked consecutive batters before bearing down to strike out two to end the threat.

He only got better from there. The pride of Leominster, MA went on to allow just three more base runners – two infield hits and a walk – over the next four frames and racked up a career-high-matching eight total strikeouts. He did so with a single game season-high 94 pitches, 56 of which were strikes.

Newcomer Jacob Sharp – acquired from Seattle in the package that came over in exchange for Yimi Garcia – provided the only run the C’s turned out to need in the bottom of the fifth. The Whittier, CA native cracked the first pitch of the frame for a solo homer, his first hit in the Blue Jays organization and his first at High-A to put Vancouver up 1-0.

Alex Amalfi (H, 1) continued his recent stretch of dominance with three scoreless innings of relief that featured one hit and five strikeouts before the Canadians added an insurance run in the eighth. Dasan Brown laced a one-out liner into left field and raced towards second for a hustle double. The throw beat him, but his swim move avoided the tag to put him in scoring position. A ground out moved him to third and a passed ball brought him home to double the Vancouver advantage.

Leading 2-0, Chay Yeager (S, 2) worked around a two-out single in the ninth to secure the 15^th C’s win over Tri-City this season. The Dust Devils have now been blanked eight times by the Canadians in 2024.

The series continues tomorrow night. #17 Blue Jays prospect Juaron Watts-Brown makes his Nat Bailey debut opposite Hillsboro’s Chris Clark. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. RE/MAX Canadians Baseball will be live on the C’s Broadcast Network: Bally Live and Sportsnet 650.