Indians fall, but so does magic number
Boise loss to Yakima helps
PASCO – When trying to nail down a division championship, sometimes it’s nice to get a little help from your friends.
And for the Spokane Indians on Saturday night, that friendly gesture came from the Yakima Bears.
The Indians managed to decrease their magic number to clinch the Northwest League East Division title to six, despite a 5-2 loss to the Tri-City Dust Devils Saturday night.
That’s because the Yakima Bears handed the Boise Hawks (37-28), the team six games behind Spokane (43-22), a 4-2 setback at Yakima.
Any combination of Spokane wins combined with Boise losses that equals six would give Spokane the championship.
On Saturday, James Sims stroked a two-run triple in the second inning and J.R. Murphy struck out all six Indians’ batters he faced in relief of Jonnathan Aristil to lead Tri-City (33-32) past Spokane.
Tri-City led 4-0 after two innings.
Spokane came back with two runs of its own in the top of the third inning.
Dennis Guinn tripled to lead off and scored on Doug Hogan’s double. Hogan went to third on Kyle Higgins’ sacrifice bunt. He scored on Jared Bolden’s single to left field.
Bolden collected two of Spokane’s six hits on the night.
Saturday was the first of six straight games against Tri-City – the first three on the road before the next three take place at Avista Stadium.
Game time tonight is 7:15.
The Indians close the season with a six-game, home-and-home series with Boise Friday through Sept. 3.