Season of high hopes reaches end
One more base hit in the ninth inning Thursday night and the Spokane Indians would still be playing baseball Friday at Avista Stadium. But the Indians' record-setting season reached an end in thrilling fashion when Spokane left the bases loaded in the ninth during a 5-4 setback to Vancouver that sent the Canadians to the Northwest League Championship series. Read story
The Indians set a franchise record with their 11-2 start and reached mid-July with a 22-8 record.
After that start, Spokane went 18-28 for the rest of the regular season and dropped both of its playoff games.
Some say the promotion of catcher Marcus Greene hurt the Indians the most, given his leadership in the clubhouse, defensive skills behind the plate and knack for getting on base. But the Indians had already started to cool off by the time Greene played his final game with the club on July 29.
Spokane also lost some punch when center fielder Zach Cone's rehab assignment ended after he hit his eighth homer with the Indians on July 23.
But manager Tim Hulett insisted through the low times of late July and August that the Indians would be fine. They were trying players at different positions, waiting for a couple of injuries to heal and using different pitching combinations.
Hulett, in the end, was mostly correct. In some ways, the Indians outplayed Vancouver in the North Division series. Spokane outhit the Canadians 16-13 and held Vancouver's stars, the top four in the lineup, to 3-for-28 hitting.
But the Canadians found a way to win a pair of one-run games while Spokane fell shy of delivering the big hit when it counted the most. Spokane began the season 6-2 against Vancouver, but the Canadians won the last six matchups (regular season and playoffs), most in close battles.
"Again, you get a guy on third base and you have to score that guy," Hulett said after Thursday's loss while referring back to Wednesday's loss in Vancouver. "That makes a big difference in the game and tonight we didn’t get it done early in the game and that hurt us."
In the long run, however, Hulett said he was proud of Spokane’s first playoff experience since 2010.
“We really didn’t show much life there offensively in the early going, but we talked about fighting all the way through and playing nine innings,” he said. … “I don’t think anybody in our organization expected these guys to come out and play the way we did. From the pitching, to the hitting to the defense, to the whole team atmosphere, these guys did a great job.”
