Indians bats go quiet in series finale

The Vancouver Canadians finally managed to silence the Indians’ bats on Friday night in Spokane’s 8-1 defeat in the last game of the five-game series at Avista Stadium.

Despite coming off a 14-hit slugfest from the night before, the Indians only managed five hits, with their run coming off a Renny Osuna base hit in the third.

Vancouver’s batters, who endured 15 strikeouts, were galvanized early in the game by Corey Brown’s solo home run in the second inning.

Brown finished the night with two hits, three RBIs and a .245 batting average.

“I’ve been in a pretty bad slump lately,” Brown said, “And I’ve been doing some work with our hitting coach trying to work on things that he noticed that I’d been doing wrong, and I’m slowly putting it together and starting to come around.

“I still have a lot of work (to do), but it feels good to start hitting the ball again.”

In the opposite dugout, the Indians’ big hitters struggled to connect with the ball all night.

First baseman Ian Gac, who had two doubles and a home run for the Indians on Thursday night, registered one hit in four at-bats.

Catcher Jonathan Greene, who had been another source of power in the Indians’ batting order over the last two nights, had the night off.

But Indians manager Tim Hulett shrugged off the suggestion that the batting order had been weakened by the omission of the Greene-and-Gac combination that had proved so productive before.

“Maybe it was a factor (in the Indians’ batting problems). But you come out here and change the lineup and those guys get hits and you say, ‘Is that the problem or the answer?’ ” Hulett said. “Every night’s a different night. Guys gotta come out and do their job.

“We didn’t put quality swings on tonight. I was not very happy with our approaches tonight. We got behind 4-1, the game’s not over and we’re up there trying to hit solo home runs.”

The Indians stayed within three runs of the Canadians until the ninth, when reliever Anton Maxwell gave up four runs that neutralized Spokane’s chances of a bottom-of-the-ninth comeback.

Maxwell walked two batters, then allowed a two-run double to Danny Hamblin, who finished with four RBIs and a homer.

“I started out with a leadoff walk and then things just kind of snowballed,” said Maxwell, a former Oregon State player who just joined the Indians this week.

Maxwell entered the game in the eighth and was left to close when the game spiraled out of control and the coaches saw no point in bringing in closer Andrew Laughter.

“Anton actually pitched OK,” Hulett said. “He got into some trouble in the ninth and he ended up losing to the left-handed hitter that we wanted him to get, and then he had to face Hamblin, who’s a good hitter and he got a ball down, and let it go. So that really hurt.”

Three Indians pitchers combined for the 15 strikeouts, but also walked six.

Starter Jacob Brigham (2-1) took the loss.

Notes

Indians reliever Chris Dennis was promoted to the Class A Clinton (Iowa) Lumberkings in the Midwest League on Thursday night. Dennis, 23, got the call after putting together five saves in seven outings, with an 0.93 ERA.