Indians take flight to tie series
Going to Vancouver down 2-0 wouldn’t have ended the Spokane Indians season, but winning three straight on the road against the league’s best pitching staff wasn’t likely to happen.
That made Friday afternoon’s Game 2 of the Northwest League Championship Series a must-win for Spokane.
Timely hitting and clutch pitching, neither of which showed up for the opener, carried the Indians to a 6-1 win over the Canadians at Avista Stadium, knotting the best-of-5 series 1-1.
“Especially going back to Canada, that’s a big one to get,” said Indians outfielder Joe Kemp, who, with an RBI triple, was part of an offensive attack that included eight players recording a hit and five with an RBI.
“After getting beat up pretty good last night, we got good pitching from our starters, and our relievers came in and did a good job, and we swung the bats well.”
Spokane’s been carried for portions of the season by Steve Murphy and Lizahio Baez, both out with injuries, and now it seems that if the Indians win, everyone is contributing.
“Well, you don’t have the big all-star trio,” Indians manager Greg Riddoch said, referring to Murphy, Baez and German Duran, who was sent to the hospital Friday to get blood work for fear he had mononucleosis. “It just goes to show that the other guys can contribute; the other guys can play, too. Anyone who comes in contributes. It’s (Ben) Crabtree or (Jonathan) Higashi or someone else who comes in and does the job. We’re overachieving our (butts) off, and it’s a fun thing.”
You couldn’t pin down one person in the Game 2 victory, but a couple of early innings in which the Indians strung together consecutive hits chased Vancouver starter Jeffrey Gray (0-1).
Gray had allowed less than a baserunner an inning this season, but Spokane put three on in the first, scoring runners on a passed ball and a fielder’s choice, and then built a 5-1 lead with a three-run third.
K.C. Herren sparked the inning with a one-out double, and Taylor Teagarden followed with a single up the middle to score him. After a flyout, John Mayberry Jr. ripped a two-out RBI double down the left-field line that Canadians left fielder Chad Boyd fumbled in the corner, allowing Teagarden to also score.
The Indians weren’t done. Kemp reached on an error, then Joey Hooft came up with a clutch at-bat, going the opposite way for an RBI single and a 5-1 lead.
Teagarden was the only Indians starter with two hits, and Herren the only one who scored two runs.
Starter David Smith (1-0) gave the Indians five solid innings, allowing one unearned run, three hits and three walks and striking out two.
“I got my off-speed stuff over a lot better today. I wasn’t spotting my fastball really well,” said Smith, who was 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA in his last two starts. “We had a game plan going in, and facing these guys, and getting the off-speed over was a big part of it.”
Tom Van Buskirk, Nate Fogle and Jon Wilson threw the last four innings, allowing five hits but stranding all of the runners by striking out seven and inducing a double-play grounder.
Vancouver, without a player batting better than .283 this season or with more than six homers, left 13 on base, including multiple runners in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings.
The series essentially boils down to a three-game set, with two of the league’s best facing off in the pivotal Game 3 tonight at Vancouver’s Nat Bailey Stadium.
Vancouver throws league ERA champion Michael Madsen (6-1, 1.69) against Spokane ace Doug Mathis (4-7, 2.68).
“They got their ace going, and he’s one of the best pitchers in the league,” Kemp said. “But Doug’s great. He throws everything for a strike and he’s got great control.”
Notes
In the nine NWLCS since the best-of-5 format was introduced in 1997, this will be only the third that hasn’t ended in a sweep. Yakima defeated Eugene 3-2 in 2000, and Portland topped Boise 3-2 in 1997.