Spokane Surges, Slides Before Stopping Eugene
As the score grew to 10-1 on Saturday, Bubba Dixon’s thoughts couldn’t have been on needing to save the Spokane Indians.
But Spokane’s huge lead over Eugene slipped until the distress call went out for the Indians’ ace reliever.
Dixon pulled off the save but not without high drama. With the bases loaded in the ninth and two out, Dixon struck out Sean McNally and Spokane teetered away with an 11-10 Northwest League baseball win at Seafirst Stadium.
Spokane (9-14) broke a sevengame losing steak, although there are more classic ways to do so.
“Anytime you get a “W” to end a losing streak, I’ll take it,” said Indians manager Tye Waller. “I don’t care if it’s ugly. We’ll take it and work on getting better tomorrow.”
Indians starter and winner Derek Mix (2-3) loaded the bases in the first inning and proceeded to run the count to 3-0 on the fourth batter, Jelani Brandon. Spokane’s bullpen began warming up and pitching coach Dave Smith visited the mound.
Mix, often plagued by wildness, came through by striking out Brandon and getting the next batter, Scott Pinoni, to ground into a double play.
Spokane took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but with two out and Dave Ullan at the plate it looked like a fairly ordinary inning. Ullan, however, doubled to center and started a spree of eight straight Indians reaching base.
Spokane scored eight runs, its biggest inning of the year and a strange feat for a team that had scored but nine runs in its last six games.
The lead grew to 10-1 after three, but Eugene (14-9), the NWL’s Southern Division leader, began shaking up its lineup with pinch-hitters and severely shearing the edge.
The Emeralds scored four in the sixth after Mix gave way to Jarman Leach. Leach lasted just an inning and his replacement, Chris Logan, had little more luck when Eugene scored four in the eighth.
Luckily for Spokane, it had scored an insurance run in the seventh when Greg LaRocca reached on a fielder’s choice, was balked to second by Richard Campbell and scored on Ullan’s double.
Dixon relieved Logan in the eighth with two out and the bases loaded. Brian Teeters’ tricky infield single scored one, then Shannon Coulter had his third and fourth RBIs of the game on a single to left.
But Dixon left two runners on by striking out Eduardo Cedeno, then, despite loading the bases in the ninth, struck out the side for his second save.
“In that situation, you gotta dig in and see what you got,” Dixon said. “You gotta just throw strikes and let the (defense) play behind you.”
Shawn Knight and LaRocca had three RBIs apiece for Spokane. The Indians’ Mark Merila, Ullan, Francisco Derotal and LaRocca reached base four times apiece as their hitting slump showed signs of ending.
“Our pitching has been doing real well,” Knight said. “It gets frustrating when you hold teams to two runs and still lose, but we just have to get the bats going and that’s what we did.”
Notes: Spokane third baseman Antonio Fernandez, the team’s top hitter, left the game in the sixth after hurting his hand while trying to field a sharp grounder by Carlos Burgos. … Spokane leads the league in attendance (4,741 per game). … Spokane pitchers lead the league with 207 strikeouts and 133 walks. … Today from noon to 2 p.m. at Seafirst Stadium fans can have photos taken with Indians players.