Indians lose, fall into first-place East tie

There were a lot of tired faces in the Spokane Indians dugout prior to the game. After arriving from Vancouver at 7 a.m. many players were visibly drained as they began to do their stretches.

“Are you awake?” Joe Kemp jokingly asked Julio Santana. When Santana didn’t answer, Kemp yelled “Wake up!”

Santana woke up, but the Indians’ bats stayed in dreamland as Spokane managed just four hits during a 7-3 loss to the visiting Boise Hawks on Sunday at Avista Stadium before a crowd of 3,566.

Spokane’s bats have been in a real slumber as of late with just 12 hits in the past four games.

Boise’s Donnie Veal held the Indians (20-26) to two hits in five innings pitched and Jesus Valdes hit a three-run homer in the fifth to power the Hawks (20-26) back into a first-place tie with Spokane in the Northwest League East.

With the game tied at 2-all, the Hawks led off the fifth inning with two consecutive singles. Starter Kellan McConnell then got the next two batters to fly out before facing Valdes. After a mound visit from Indians manager Greg Riddoch with one strike in the count, Valdes hit a line drive over the left field wall to give the Hawks a 5-2 lead.

“It came down to me missing location and he didn’t,” said McConell, who was supposed throw an inside fastball, but ended up throwing a fastball high and over the plate. “That was the difference.”

McConnell, who said the team looked “lethargic”, gave up five runs on eight hits in five innings pitched to take his fifth loss of the season.

“It affected us a little bit,” said Spokane’s German Duran, who went 1 for 3, of the eight-hour morning drive back to Spokane.

“It’s stuff that every minor league team goes through,” said McConnell. “I’m sure Boise got in early too (after coming in from Salem-Keizer). It was the longest road trip of the season, by far, and the team looked lethargic, but we have to do a better job and not use that as an excuse.”

The Indians’ got two runs off of solo home runs from Phillip Hawke and John Mayberry Jr.

Beal, who was making his Hawks debut, struck out three and was tagged with one earned run en route to the victory.

The Tri-City Dust Devils, tied with Boise a game behind Spokane going into Sunday, suffered a 3-1 loss in 12 innings to Yakima and remain one-game behind the East division co-leaders.