Indians edge Canadians; Davis’ hitting streak ends

Although Chris Davis’ 19-game hitting streak came to an end, the Spokane Indians still pulled off their second consecutive victory at home.

The Indians totaled five hits in the 3-2 victory Friday night over the Vancouver Canadians in Northwest League baseball play in front of a crowd of 6,689 spectators at Avista Stadium.

“What the game came down to was we pitched better than they did and we made more plays better than they did and we actually out-executed them,” Spokane manager Mike Micucci said. “That was a good clean game and we’re proud of our effort.”

The victory brings Spokane to 2-0 in the five-game series and 17-28 overall, third in the East Division.

A rundown in the sixth inning resulted in what proved to be the winning run for Spokane.

With two outs in the sixth, Vancouver made a pitching change with reliever Matt Manship. Spokane had base runners on first and third and Manship tried to do a third-to-first fake from the mound. Manship tried to pick off Nick Cadena on first, but Cadena stayed in the rundown. The Vancouver second baseman dropped the ball, however, allowing Chad Tracy, on third, to come home. As it turned out a balk was called on a play.

The run gave the Indians a 3-2 lead.

Spokane’s newly acquired outfielder, KC Herren, unloaded against the Canadians, going 2 for 3 with a double and scoring the Indians’ second run, breaking a 1-1 tie in a two-run fourth. After playing with the 2005 Spokane team, the Texas Rangers’ 2004 No. 2 draft pick returned to Spokane after a short stint with the Clinton LumberKings.

The Canadians scored both of their runs against Spokane’s starting pitcher Mike Ballard (2-5). Ballard pitched six innings with three walks and two strikeouts. Vancouver also had all three of its hits against the starter. Ballard did catch a couple of Canadian runners off the bag at first who were then out in rundowns.

Vancouver’s No. 2 batter, Lorenzo Macias, hit a solo home run in the fourth inning, putting the Canadians on the board. Macias was batting .115 entering the game and the homer was his first of the season. Macias went 0 for 6 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the series.

The Canadians didn’t score again until the sixth inning when Greg Dowling knocked in a run with a double to right field, tying the game at 2. Right fielder Davis stretched out for the fly ball, but came up empty.

Davis also came up short at the plate, going 0 for 3 to end his streak.

Kyle Rogers relieved Ballard in the seventh, pitching one inning with one strikeout and one walk. Austin Weilep entered in the eighth, retiring all six batters he faced, striking out four in earning his fourth save.

“It was mostly fastballs and a couple of off-speed pitches,” Weilep said of his four strikeouts. “(Catcher) Billy (Killian) did a good job framing the ball.”

Game 3 of the five-game series against Vancouver is today at 6:30 p.m. at Avista Stadium. There will be a fireworks show at the ballpark after the game.