Phillips gets tough after early homer
Shawn Phillips lost his no-hit bid with the second pitch of Wednesday night’s game.
What he didn’t lose was his composure, or, for that matter, the baseball game.
Phillips (2-1), Eric Hurley and Jarrad Burcie combined on a two-hitter while leading the Spokane Indians past Everett 6-1 in the fourth game of a five-game series at Avista Stadium.
Phillips pitched five no-hit innings after AquaSox left fielder Casey Craig led off the game with a home run deep to right-center field. Hurley followed with three no-hit innings, and Burcie allowed only Oswaldo Navarro’s one-out double in the ninth.
“It shocked me a little bit,” Phillips said of the 1-0 fastball that he tried to sneak past Craig, the Northwest League leader in on-base percentage. “I made just one bad pitch all night. He made me pay for it, but that’s what professional athletes do.”
The Indians (27-25) will attempt to win the series 3-2 when they send right-hander Clint Brannon (1-0, 0.93) to the mound tonight against right-hander Jason Snyder (1-1, 3.86). Spokane pulled within one game of first-place Boise and Tri-City, both of which lost on Wednesday.
Everett (29-23), the West Division leader, leads the season series with Spokane 5-4.
Phillips struck out five and walked one while turning in his second consecutive solid start. Phillips has allowed three hits and one earned run during his last 10 innings, striking out nine and walking one.
Craig’s homer, his third of the season, marked the fourth time this season that the Indians have served up a game-opening homer in their home park.
“You don’t see it very often,” Phillips said. “Leadoff hitters are supposed to try to get on base instead of hitting homers.”
NWL runs batted in leader Travis Metcalf took Phillips off the hook with one out in the first inning. With Michael Mask at second base after slicing a double to left field, Metcalf pounced on a 2-0 fastball from Mumba Rivera (3-5) and homered to left.
“I took a couple of steps down the line,” Metcalf said about watching the flight of his 11th homer, which threatened to go foul. “It just kind of hooked a little bit, but it got up there and stayed fair.”
Metcalf collected his 46th and 47 RBIs.
“My main concern is hitting in runs for the team and helping us produce,” Metcalf said. “If they get on base, I want to knock them in. That’s my job.”
Spokane built the lead to 4-1 with Bobby LeNoir’s RBI single to left in the second and Chris Alexander’s RBI on a fielder’s choice in the fourth.
After Kevin Mahar’s no-out single in the fourth for Spokane, neither team had a hit until the Indians pieced together a two-out rally in the eighth. Ben Harrison singled to right, and Jim Fasano and Mahar followed with consecutive RBI doubles to right.
Fasano is batting .444 (24 for 54) since July 28.
Spokane improved to 15-13 at home. The AquaSox are 16-12 on the road.
“Our pitching held these guys to one run after the last two games were more like football scores,” Metcalf said, noting that Everett leads the league in team batting average.
Notes
The Indians added to their roster right-handed pitcher Andrew Walker, a free-agent signee from the University of Alabama. Walker was selected in the 20th round of the 2002 amateur draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he didn’t sign a contract. Walker was 4-1 for the Crimson Tide this season, with 51 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings. He’s expected in Spokane today. … Spokane’s Tug Hulett drew his 45th walk in the fourth. Hulett leads the club with 16 stolen bases (in 19 attempts). … Brandon Boggs served as the Indians’ first-base coach. Boggs, drafted in the fourth round in June out of Georgia Tech, hasn’t played this month because of bruised ribs.