Indians lose series opener at Vancouver

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Spokane Indians’ three-game winning streak came to an end with a 7-4 Northwest League baseball loss to the Vancouver Canadians on Thursday night. Vancouver grabbed the lead for good in the sixth. Jorge Flores doubled off Richard Alvarez (0-2), the second of four Indians pitchers, and moved over to third on a bunt. Josh McElwee replaced Alvarez and hit Nicholas Baligod. Flores scored when first baseman Ryan Rua couldn’t handle a pickoff throw. The Indians scratched out a pair of runs in the first inning with the help of two errors. Christopher Garia led off with a single to center field and then stole second base, his ninth steal of the season. Gabriel Roa hit back to pitcher Ben White, who threw away the ball trying to get Garia. Garia scored on the play with Roa taking second. Royce Bolinger struck out but Ryan Rua reached on an error by shortstop Jorge Flores with Roa going to third. Roa then scored when Brandon Garcia grounded out to second. The Canadians tied the game with a single runs in the third and fourth. The Canadians got their first run in the third with the help of two walks by starter Connor Sadzeck with Kellen Sweeney’s single to right scoring Matt Newman. Sadzeck escaped further damage despite giving up three walks and two wild pitches in the inning. Vancouver tied the game in the fourth. Leo Hernandez reached base on a one-out error by third baseman Smerling Lantigua. Sadzeck threw another wild pitch and followed that with a walk. But after getting the second out on a strikeout, he gave up a run-scoring double to Derrick Chung. That knocked Sadzeck out of the game in favor of Alvarez, who ended the inning with a strikeout. The Indians took a brief lead in the fifth when Guy Edmonds led off with an infield hit and went to third on Saquan Johnson’s double to left. Roa’s sacrifice fly brought in Edmonds and Bolinger followed with an RBI single. Vancouver tied it in the bottom of the ining. A walk and a double were followed by an RBI ground out and a run-scoring single. A walk and two triples off Ryan Harvey in the eighth gave Vancouver two more runs.