Boise’s Thurmond Again Goes The Distance Against Tribe

Once again, Travis Thurmond completely handled the Spokane Indians.

Thurmond (5-1) pitched his second complete game against the Indians this season as his Boise Hawks scored a 5-3 Northwest League decision Tuesday night.

Thurmond allowed five hits and three earned runs. When he beat Spokane on July 18, he gave up five hits and one earned run.

Boise (27-19) tied the five-game series at 2. The Hawks have a 6-3 lead in the season series, which ends tonight.

Boise trails Portland in the Southern Division by 1-1/2 games. Spokane (18-28) slipped into last place in the Northern Division, one game behind Yakima.

Ryan Kane and Norm Hutchins supported Thurmond with solo home runs. Spokane also assisted Thurmond by committing three errors.

Spokane’s Tony Miranda had his first professional homer, a long, two-run blast to left in the first inning.

Miranda’s homer gave hope to Spokane starter Stephen Prihoda, who was looking for an elusive first win. Prihoda instead dropped to 0-3, with two of the losses against Boise.

Miranda’s homer followed a one-out walk to Mark Melito. Thurmond shook off the runs and retired eight consecutive Indians before Miranda doubled in the fourth.

By then, Boise had tied the game with a two-run third. Leonardo Bryan, David Davalillo and Trent Durrington had consecutive singles to score one run. After a force out, Durrington took third when Spokane second baseman Brett Schafer dropped Prihoda’s throw to first on a sacrifice attempt. Prihoda’s wild pitch scored Durrington.

The Hawks went ahead for good on Kane’s leadoff homer in the fourth. Kane has nine homers this year, three against the Indians.

Norm Hutchins blasted a Prihoda changeup to left in the fifth for his first homer as a pro.

Spokane chipped away at the Hawks’ 4-2 lead in the seventh as Leon Weathersby hit a one-out triple and scored on Randy Paulin’s sacrifice fly. Weathersby, who hit a grand slam homer on Monday, leads the club with three triples.

Bryan walked against reliever Matthew Saier to lead off the Hawks seventh. Errors by Schafer and James Vida scored Bryan. On Vida’s error, Indians manager Al Pedrique argued that the ball was in foul territory.

Vida led off the ninth with a single off the wall, but Mark Quinn grounded into a double play to stop the rally. Vida went 2 for 4, with a triple, to take over the league batting lead at .362. He was originally credited with another hit, but the bloop single was changed to an error by Boise’s official scorer.

Saier pitched three hitless innings.

Hal Hodge (3-1) of Spokane is scheduled to start tonight against Jarrod Washburn (3-2).