Ogata delivers winner

Tim Hulett wanted to make something happen, Jason Ogata made it happen.

The Spokane Indians’ manager called for a hit-and-run play in the bottom of the ninth and his second baseman drilled a one-out double to score Jared Bolden from first base and treat the largest Avista Stadium crowd of the season, 7,068, to an early fireworks display with a 5-4 win over Yakima Saturday night.

“We had a good hitter at the plate and I wanted to get a little first-and-third action,” Hulett said. “Bolden is also a good runner, so if there is a swing and miss he has a good chance of stealing the base.”

Ogata, a 38th-round draft pick out of Oregon State, drove the pitch from Bryan Woodall (2-3) to the wall in left-center to easily score Bolden, who had a one-out single to center.

“I’m the No. 2 hitter in the lineup – my job is to move runners around,” Ogata said. “I was just trying to put the ball in play. It was a fastball elevated a little bit and I got a good swing on it.”

By putting Bolden in motion, Hulett didn’t hesitate to send him home when the ball split the outfielders.

“It would have been a lot tougher call,” he said. “It would have been risky with one out and the three-hole hitter on deck.”

The win ended a two-game skid for the East Division leaders who have the best record in the Northwest League. Spokane increased its division lead to five games because Boise lost to Tri-City.

“We played a little flat the last couple of nights,” Hulett said. “I wanted to see some energy. We had three runs in the third inning but they did a good job, their pitcher shut us down.”

Other than two-out singles by Ogata and David Paisano in the third, the Indians had a tough time getting a clutch hit, a pattern in this short homestand.

“I guess they’re actually normal guys,” Hulett said. “We’ve been hitting at a pretty high clip. With guys on base and two outs especially, we’ve had a lot of big hits. Our record is the way it is because we’ve had so many key hits. I think the expectations are on them now to get it every time. But this is a good club. We still expect it, too.”

The Indians (33-12) have not lost more than two straight all season and didn’t want to start.

“We’ve haven’t playing very good baseball, but this is a long season – it happens,” Ogata said. “This was good. We didn’t want to get swept at home. We’re all confidant.”

But the Indians did scuffle against a team that came here 18 games behind.

The Bears (16-28) scored in the first when David Cooper opened the game by beating out a grounder to short. A sacrifice, passed ball and a wild pitch by Spokane starter Wilfredo Boscan quickly made it 1-0.

The Indians had four of their nine hits in the third to get the lead, but Yakima scratched back.

A walk and two hits with two outs in the fourth made it 3-2. In the sixth, Brendan Duffy led off with a triple and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

Both teams added an ugly run in the eighth.

Duffy, on second with one out, broke for third as Anthony Smith struck out and scored when catcher Zach Zaneski’s throw sailed into left field.

Spokane countered with two walks and Eric Fry’s seeing-eye, pop-up bunt that fell for a single before Matt West hit a sacrifice fly.

That set up Ogata’s heroics and made a winner of Justin Gutsie (4-0), who retired all four batters he faced after entering with two outs in the eight.