Dust Devils demolish Indians
Not even the Northwest League’s top offense could dig out of a deep hole Wednesday.
The Tri-City Dust Devils scored 11 runs in the first three innings – thanks to a grand slam by Tyler Massey and five coming in on a homer and single by Jordan Ribera – as the Spokane Indians fell out of a first-place tie, losing 13-2 before a sparse crowd of 3,024 at Avista Stadium.
Massey lifted a 3-2 fastball from reliever Andres Perez-Lobo over the stadium scoreboard in right-center field. It appeared the ball was still rising as it cleared it.
Spokane won the series, but it seemed to have a hollow feeling.
The Dust Devils jumped on Spokane starter John Kukuruda early. Ribera hit a league-leading fifth homer, a three-run shot.
Tri-City added three runs in the second, capped by Ribera’s two-run single.
Things got out of hand in the third when the Dust Devils (11-9) scored five, including Massey’s grand slam.
Massey added a second homer, a two-run blast that flew into a window of The Depot over the right-field fence, in the seventh. He finished with six RBIs.
Massey, who was drafted out of high school in 2008, feels this is a put-up season for him after he spent the last two summers at Asheville, N.C., playing for the Colorado Rockies’ low Class A team in the South Atlantic League.
“In my whole career, going back to high school, I’ve never had a grand slam. So I had two firsts,” said Massey, including a two-homer game. “I had some quality at-bats and was able to put a good swing on the ball. I’m feeling more and more comfortable.”
Injuries slowed Massey’s career early.
“I’m just trying to relax and have fun this season and I feel like that’s helping me adjust to some pitchers,” Massey said. “I’m seeing the pitches I want to hit. It helps because I’ve gotten into quite a few hitters counts. In past years I’d get to quite a few 2-2 counts and chase some pitches out of the zone. It’s definitely a wake-up call. In baseball, you can’t get too down or too high. I just took the approach that I’m going to come here and give it my best shot.”
The teams split a six-game series that started in Pasco last week.
It was Spokane’s worst defeat going back to a 14-2 setback in the season opener.
“You go out and your first two guys give up 11, I think that pretty much says it all,” Spokane manager Tim Hulett said. “When you get behind that far against a team – and they had a pretty good guy going – so it was tough. It becomes tough (when you fall behind) because you have a tendency to get out of your game plan. You try to get too much too quick. We really didn’t put any threats together.”
Spokane (11-9) begins a five-game home series tonight against the Vancouver Canadians.
“One thing that pro ball will teach you is you put today’s game away and you go with the next game,” Hulett said. “You’re going to have games like this where pitchers struggle throwing strikes and when you throw a strike it gets hit.”