Tribe Bats The Strong, Silent Type Blevins Shuts Down Spokane In Boise’s 4-2 Nwl Victory

Kit Pellow’s face told the story for Spokane’s hitters in the Indians’ 4-2 loss against Boise on Sunday at Seafirst Stadium in front of 5,042.

Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning and with Kenderick Moore at second, Pellow flied out in foul territory to end the inning. Afterward, Pellow stood a home plate for a few seconds just staring at his bat.

He was one of many Indians left gazing at their bats on Sunday. Four different Hawks pitchers combined to give up just two hits against Spokane.

For Boise (17-3), starting right-handed pitcher Jeremy Blevins (1-1) threw five masterful innings of one-hit ball. Not bad for a guy who entered the game with a 12.41 earned-run average in three prior starts.

“I was just a lot more relaxed,” Blevins said. “I just threw the ball to the mitt. That’s something I hadn’t done in my last two games.”

Before Sunday’s outing, in 12-1/3 innings, Blevins had given up 17 hits, 18 runs (17 earned), walked 13 batters and struck out 10.

“I felt real good,” Blevins added. “I was just getting ahead of a lot of hitters.”

Still, the Indians had their chances.

With the bases loaded in the sixth and righty Hector Rodriguez on in relief of Blevins, Spokane could only manage one run to cut the lead to 4-2.

In the third, after Kris Didion hit a solo homer to make the score 2-1, Roman Escamilia and Eric Sees drew walks with no one out.

But Moore, the next batter, hit a hard liner to ball shortstop Chuck Abbott, who doubled up Escamilia at second, after Escamilia had taken off running at the crack of the bat. Jeremy Giambi then lined out to right to end the inning.

And in the bottom of the ninth, with Jayson Layne at second and Carlos Beltran at first with one down, Didion flied out behind home plate and Escamilia flied out to right to end the game.

“We just didn’t play heads-up like we needed to,” Spokane manager Bob Herold said. “When we didn’t hit ourselves out of innings, then we ran ourselves out of innings.”

On the mound for Spokane, right-handed starter Scott Mullen recovered from a shaky beginning to last 4-1/3 innings, before Allen Sanders entered to go the rest of the way.

Still, Boise’s first two runs to cross the plate were by players that Mullen either walked or hit. The Hawks went up 3-1 in the fifth when Wade Jackson, the first batter Sanders faced, doubled to score Richard Stuart. Stuart had doubled off Mullen to begin the inning.

Then, Rob Neal, who reached first on a throwing error by shortstop Eric Sees before moving to third on Stuart’s hit, scored Boise’s final run when Juan Rodriguez hit a deep sacrifice fly to left, giving his team a 4-1 lead.

For Spokane in the sixth, Sees scored the Indians’ last run when Brandon Berger hit a sacrifice fly to left scoring him from third with the bases loaded. It was the only run Spokane got in the inning.

Notes

The outstanding play of Spokane second baseman Kenderick Moore didn’t come without some pain.

In the top of the sixth, Moore made a diving catch in shallow left field to rob Patrick Johnson of a would-be base hit. However, Moore remained on the grass for a few minutes because he had the wind knocked out of him.

In the bottom of the eighth, Moore - after drawing a walk - stole second base. But he strained his left quadriceps in the process. He had to be carried off the field and was replaced in the lineup by Brett Taft.

“It was a lot worse than it looked,” Herold said. “The last thing we needed was to lose our leading base stealer.”

Moore, the Northwest League’s second-leading base thief, has stolen 12 bases this season. And among Spokane batters with more than 50 plate appearances, he has the fourth highest on-base percentage at .375.

Box score can be found on C4.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo