Indians Continue To Struggle Spokane Loses For 11Th Time In Last 15 Games

Ray Hattenburg seems to have finally found an offensive groove but the same can’t be said for the Spokane Indians.

A night after smacking his first career home run, Hattenburg singled and doubled Monday yet Spokane’s bats continued to struggle and lost 5-2 to the Portland Rockies in a Northwest League baseball game.

The Avista Stadium crowd of 3,923 saw Spokane (28-32) lose its 11th game in 15 tries and Portland (28-31) win its third of four in the series. The teams play the final game of the five-game set at 7:05 tonight, then Spokane finishes its eight-game homestand with three games - their first three of the season - against North Division-leading Yakima, which holds a six-game lead over Spokane.

Hattenburg was 0 for 4 in the first game of the series and 0 for 3 in the second game before his pinch-hit home run in the ninth of Sunday’s 5-4 loss. He was the only Spokane player with multiple hits Monday, with two of the team’s six.

Four of Portland’s five runs were scored by players who reached base on walks and Rockies right fielder Jorge Sosa again hurt the Indians.

Sosa smacked a three-run triple off the wall in right-center in the fourth for a 3-0 Portland lead. Sosa has been trouble for Spokane all series. He is 6 of 17 in the series and has eight of his 25 RBIs - all in the three Portland victories. He is hitting .222 against Spokane this summer and had one RBI in four games against the Indians in Portland.

Spokane starter Jon Metzger had only lasted three innings in his previous outing against the Rockies, a 4-1 Spokane loss July 26 in which he was tagged for four runs on five hits. He went five innings Monday but gave up the three runs in the fourth. The left-hander out of the University of Virginia loaded the bases with no outs on two walks and a single, then struck out two batters before allowing Sosa’s triple.

The Rockies plated an insurance run in the eighth when Garrett Atkins scored as Spokane infielders Darren Fenster and Aaron Melebeck failed to field Javier Guzman’s slow roller up the middle. Portland could have increased their cushion but left the bases loaded.

Spokane scored its two runs in the fifth. The Indians had runners on first and second when Hattenburg hit a two-out single to left to score Marco Cunningham from second. Melebeck made it home from first on an overthrow by Portland left-fielder Javier Guzman as he tried to throw Melebeck out at third.

Hattenburg doubled to lead off the eighth but he was tagged at third and the Indians didn’t score in the inning.

Notes

Spokane will send right-hander Ian Ferguson (2-6, 4.20 ERA) to the mound tonight against Portland lefty Justin Hampson (0-1, 3.00)… . Kansas City Royals roving catching instructor Brian Poldberg is in town for “organization evaluation” along with area scout Greg Smith and scout Gary Johnson, who covers Southern California and Arizona… . Thirteen Indians players have been invited to Kansas City’s fall instructional league at the organization’s spring training facility near Orlando, Fla. They are pitchers Zach McClellan, Brad Stiles, Michael Natale, Jason Fingers, Wes Wilkerson and Jon Metzger; catchers Hersy Felix and Scott Walter; infielders Chad Santos, Abel Martinez and Justin Gemoll; and outfielders Ben Cordova and Jermaine Smiley. About 50 players in the organization are invited to the instructional league, which goes Sept. 20 to Oct. 21.