Sloppy Indians defeated

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Spokane Indians were done in by sloppy defense on Tuesday. Vancouver (2-3) took advantage of four errors and beat the Indians 5-4 in 12 innings in a Northwest League baseball game.

Jason Leblebijian’s RBI-single in the bottom of the 12th was the winning hit, but it wasn’t the story of the game.

With two outs in the ninth and a 4-3 lead, Spokane’s Josh McElwee struck out Nico Taylor – his third of the inning – but the ball got away from catcher Marcus Greene, who recovered it and threw off the mark to first base, letting the tying run come home. He finished the inning with four strikeouts, and struck out the side in the 10th.

Hirotoshi Onaka scored in the top of the ninth to give Spokane a 4-3 lead. He pinch-ran for Janluis Castro, who reached on an error, and later scored on Greene’s groundout.

Spokane (1-4) dug itself a hole with sloppy defense early and trailed 3-1 heading into the eighth. But a run-scoring groundout by Roberto Duran and an RBI-triple by Christopher Garia in the eighth knotted the game at 3.