Just like that, close game becomes rout
The Spokane Indians were protecting a 2-1 lead when Pepe Cardona stepped to the plate with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning on Friday night. The final five innings of the Northwest League game unfolded in scoreless form, but what happened for the rest of the Indians' fourth was best described by manager Tim Hulett as "the floodgates opening." Read story
Once the dust settled from the Indians' 10-1 win over Everett at Avista Stadium, Hulett was asked to piece together Spokane's eight-run outburst in 50 words or less.
"I don’t know if I can even remember it," Hulett laughed. "Let’s see, how did it start? … Three walks and they kind of threw the ball around, but we had some aggressive hitters, guys going up there with good plans at the plate … situational hitting and moving runners around."
Hulett can be forgiven if some sequences of the fourth were hard to recapture. The Indians sent 13 runners to the plate and didn't need an extra-base hit to plate the eight runs. Six consecutive batters scored, starting with Cardona, and Everett didn't record the second out until Seth Spivey's long sacrifice fly to center field for a 7-1 lead.
Two of Spokane's five singles during the inning were infield hits by Diego Cedeno and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Fernando Vivili, Jose Trevino and Luke Tendler all walked. Everett aided Spokane's cause with three errors, including Eduard Pinto's sharp grounder that first baseman Kristian Brito couldn't handle, scoring two runs for a 6-1 lead.
Three singles went to center field, two by Cardona and one by Josh Morgan, driving in his first run in his second game with the Indians.
Cardona is batting .327 since joining the Indians on July 25.
"I’m comfortable and they’re pretty good with me," Cardona said. "I have a good relationship with everybody and that’s why I’m feeling so good."
Only six RBIs were credited to Spokane. Spivey, who increased his league-leading average to .356, had two of the RBIs.
Pinto went 1 for 3 and is No. 2 in league batting at .344.
The 12-hit attack helped Spokane (.284) slightly increase its team batting league lead over Boise (.280).
Spokane entered the game with the most homers (37) in the NWL, but Eugene (38) hit two to pass the Indians. Chris Mariscal's first-inning homer was Everett's 36th.
