Indians get even with Dust Devils
In his year-plus in Spokane, outfielder Tim Rodriguez has endeared himself with Indian fans with his pregame acrobatics.
But what made the 5,338 in attendance at Indians Stadium go head over heels Saturday night was his bat.
Rodriguez’s two big hits – a two-run single in the second and a game-tying double in the fourth – allowed Spokane to flip the tables and beat the visiting Tri-City Dust Devils 7-5, despite the Indians trailing 4-0 before their second at-bats.
The win evened the three-game series at one apiece and pulled Spokane into a tie with the Devils for first in the Northwest League’s East Division at 8-4.
The early deficit was almost entirely self-inflicted, with 17-year-old starting pitcher Martin Perez giving up two unearned runs in the first – after a two-out bases-loaded throwing error by shortstop Ed Koncel – and two more runs in the second – one of which was also unearned due to Matt West’s inning-opening boot of Patrick Rose’s routine ground ball.
“It happens,” Indians manager Tim Hulett said of the loose early defense. “We play a lot of games, we’re going to have some routine balls that go by the wayside. The great character about this team is they come back.”
They did this night, though Hulett wasn’t around to see all of it.
Crossing behind home plate after the bottom of the third inning, he and home plate umpire Charles Billington conversed and, as he reached the dugout, Hulett was ejected.
Asked if he said anything, Hulett answered, “not really. These guys are inexperienced as well, they are young guys (gaining an) understanding (of) the game and what’s important about the game. It was something about being in the coaching box.”
At that point the Indians had already pulled within a run, thanks to Rodriguez’s two-run single in the second and Dennis Guinn’s sacrifice fly in the third.
With Hulett in the clubhouse, assistant coach Luis Ortiz took over in the third-base box and the Indians promptly exploded for a game-deciding four-run rally.
“If he can do that every night, he can have it,” Hulett said.
Joey Butler started the fourth with a ground single to right. Rodriguez then lined the first pitch he saw from loser Ken Durst (1-2) just fair into the left-field corner for a game-tying double.
Doubles then became cheap, as catcher Doug Hogan put the Indians up for good with another one into the left-field corner. An out later, leadoff hitter David Paisano greeted reliever Andrew Graves with a double.
Paisano finished the rally with a steal of third, scoring when catcher Jordan Pacheco’s throw sailed into left field.
A big part of the rally came from the relief corps – winner Tim Murphy (1-0) dropped his earned run average from 27.00 to 4.91 with three innings of scoreless, one-hit pitching before Cliff Springston and Trevor Hurley combined to yield just one more run over the final four innings.
Mike Hollander, who joined the Indians on Friday, suffered a broken thumb in his first game and is out for at least six weeks. To replace Hollander, shortstop Kyle Higgins was brought up from the Arizona rookie league.