Spokane Indians dispatch Dust Devils 6-4
PASCO – The Spokane Indians had a wild time at the expense of Evan DeLuca on Friday.
Spokane (20-8) batted around during a five-run sixth inning and dispatched the Tri-City Dust Devils 6-4 to open a three-game Northwest League series at Gesa Stadium.
DeLuca relieved starter Blake Shouse (1-3) with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth, with Tri-City holding a 2-1 lead.
DeLuca walked Luke Tendler to tie the game at 2. With Marcus Greene batting next, DeLuca threw two wild pitches to score Seth Spivey and Jose Trevino for a 4-2 Indians lead.
A walk to Greene ended DeLuca’s night and brought on Jerad McCrummen. After Greene stole second base, Zach Cone lined a double to left field to score Tendler and Greene for a 6-2 edge.
Derek Thompson (2-4) struck out six in five innings to earn the win. Erik Swanson followed with one-hit ball over three innings, striking out four.
NWL batting leader Spivey went 2 for 3 to increase his average to .395. Indians leadoff hitter Eduard Pinto was 3 for 4 to boost his average to .345, just behind second-place Tendler (.347).
Spokane is 3-1 against the Dust Devils (11-17), 8-4 on the road and 10-3 against North Division teams such as Tri-City.
The Indians maintained their three-game divisional lead on Vancouver (17-11) with 10 games left in the season’s first half.