Relief Ace Closes Out Spokane Thames Whiffs Three Straight Indians To Save Boise’S Victory

Charlie Thames makes his living spoiling last-minute hopes.

The Boise Hawks closer has gone eight games and 14 innings without allowing an earned run and he picked up his sixth save of the season Tuesday night as the Hawks defeated the Spokane Indians 4-3 in a Northwest League baseball game in front of 3,653 fans at Avista Stadium.

With the tying run on second base in the eighth inning, Thames struck out three straight Spokane batters looking.

Thames, a right-hander out of the University of Texas who’s been a closer for three years, went 2-1/3 innings, allowing one hit and striking out four.

His first professional season is off to a better start than he expected.

“I’m blessed right now and really fortunate to be doing what I’m doing,” he said. “I go out there and try to do my job and if I succeed, great, and if not, I just try my best. I’m having fun.”

His team will play the final game of its three-game series here at 7:05 tonight. Then the Indians host Salem-Keizer for five. Spokane, Everett and Yakima all are 15-13 to lead the league’s North Division after Everett lost 3-2 in 12 innings at Yakima.

Aside from the eighth, the Indians also missed a chance in the seventh. They had the go-ahead run on first with two outs after Justin Cowan’s double and Ray Hattenburg’s walk. Then Chad Santos hit a high fly to center to end the inning.

For five straight innings - the second through the sixth - the Hawks (14-14) led off with a base hit. They scored two runs in the second and their other two in the fourth. Center fielder J.R. Mounts scored twice, singling in the second and hitting his sixth double of the season in the fourth.

The Indians pulled within 4-3 after scoring twice in the fourth on four hits, including Ben Cordova’s double off the wall in left-center.

Spokane second baseman Abel Martinez, the league’s batting leader, has reached base in all 18 games he’s played since joining the team June 30. He came into Tuesday’s game hitting .382 and went 2 for 4 with two singles.

Spokane’s pitching continued to struggle.

Starter Brad Stiles (3-1) had thrown six scoreless innings in his last outing July 1, a 2-1 win at Eugene, but was tagged for four runs on seven hits in four innings.

“We’re still trying to get some guys acclimated to our throwing program,” said pitching coach Randy Smith. “We’ve had guys who threw 100 innings at college. We expect them to struggle early and hopefully they’ll get better as we go. The starting pitching has not been good to this point and it has to get better.”

Spokane’s Carlos Martinez had one of his better outings, throwing three scoreless innings and allowing three hits to go with four strikeouts. Shortstop Aaron Melebeck went 1 for 4 in his first game with the Indians.

Boise’s first-round draft pick, Joe Torres, a 17-year-old left-hander out of Gateway (Fla.) High School, went 1-1/3 innings in his first start, allowing one run on two hits with no strikeouts and two walks.

Notes

Spokane left-hander Kyle Turner (1-3, 5.56 ERA), the opening day starter, was released late Monday and flew home to Oakland, Calif., early Tuesday… . Right-hander Ryan Bukvich (2-0, 0.64) was called up to long-season Class A Charleston (W.Va.), after Monday’s game. Bukvich, an 11th-round draft pick out of the University of Mississippi, picked up his second win Monday. He threw 2-1/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits with two strikeouts and three walks. Bukvich was called up after 1999 Indian Jason Gilfillan was elevated from Charleston to Wilmington (Del.) of the faster Carolina League… . With the changes, right-handed pitcher Wes Wilkerson (0-0, 40.50) was activated. … Tonight’s pitchers in the final game of the three-game set will be Boise right-hander David Wolensky (2-1, 2.81 ERA) against Spokane right-hander Zach McClellan (0-0, 5.00).