Dust Devils pound Indians
Three solo home runs and a two-run homer weren’t enough for the Spokane Indians to win the rubber game of the three-game series against the Tri-City Dust Devils.
Instead, two three-run homers from Tri-City’s Victor Ferrante sparked the Dust Devils to a 14-6 win over the Indians on Monday night in Northwest League baseball play in front of 3,003 spectators at Avista Stadium.
“I’ve been taking a few more pitches and I’ve been more patient at the plate,” Spokane’s Chris Davis said of his eighth home run. “I haven’t changed anything; I just caught a few of them right.”
Spokane (14-21) totaled only seven hits, four of which left the yard, compared to Tri-City’s 16 hits.
“When we get down by a lot we’re not swinging on top of the balls, instead we’re swinging for the fences,” Spokane manager Mike Micucci said. “That’s what the club was doing (Monday).”
Despite losing the series 2-1, designated hitter Chad Tracy grabbed the Northwest League home run lead with his fourth-inning home run, his third in three nights and eighth overall. Tracy held on to his lead for eight pitches until teammate Chris Davis came to the plate and tied Tracy with a home run over center field.
“It’s nice to have stats, but you can’t worry about that,” Tracy said. “We need to win some games. We only had seven hits, we need to work on everything.”
Davis and Tracy weren’t the only batters knocking the ball out of the park. Grant Gerrard hit his first home run of the season over the right-field fence in the first inning and Thomas Berkery hit a two-run homer in the ninth.
From the other side, the Dust Devils’ Ferrante knocked a three-run homer to left field in the fourth inning against Spokanes reliever John Slusarz, giving Tri-City (17-18) an 8-1 lead. Ferrante only had two home runs coming into Monday night’s game, but he came back around in the eighth inning and hit another three-run homer against closer Glenn Swanson.
The only other Indians’ run was scored via a sacrifice fly to center field in the fifth inning from leadoff hitter Joey Hooft.
“We don’t like to lose at home, we’re out there battling, but things aren’t working out for us right now,” Davis said.
Craig Crow (0-2) started on the mound for the Indians giving up two runs on three hits in two innings of work. Crow was relieved because of a sore arm, but finished with three strikeouts.
Slusarz relieved Crow in the third, hitting the first batter with a pitch and loading the bases by walking the next to hitters. Slusarz hit yet another batter with a pitch to force in a run and allowed a sacrifice fly to push across the Dust Devils’ fourth run.
Slusarz hit his third batter of the night in the fourth inning and with two runners on, gave up a three-run home run. He was pulled after allowing six earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.
The Indians will host the Boise Hawks in a three-game series starting tonight at 6:30 p.m.