Indians outrally Dust Devils
In a game with six lead changes, the Spokane Indians kept answering Tuesday night and rallied for a thrilling 7-5 victory over the Tri City Dust Devils.
Manager Tim Hulett said he was pleased to see his batters respond inning after inning even though his pitchers struggled to hold the leads in front of 4,097 fans at Avista Stadium.
“That’s a little different win for us, coming back time and time again,” Hulett said. “It’s easy to fold if you give up the lead right away. But we kept fighting.”
Indians third baseman Ti’Quan Forbes went 2 for 2 at the plate and left fielder Leon Byrd went 2 for 3 to continue his torrid hitting streak. Byrd entered Monday’s game hitting .192. He left the second consecutive win over the Dust Devils hitting .218.
“I’m just playing like I want to play. Right now, I’m seeing the ball really well,” he said. “I’m finding holes and getting lucky.”
But the biggest hit of the night came off the bat of Indians center fielder Darius Day. He hit a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the sixth inning that scored two runs to give Spokane its winning margin.
With two outs and entering the at-bat 0 for 3 for the game, Day said he took a “gangster hack” at the first pitch he saw.
But Dust Devils pitcher Elvin Liriano threw a fastball down that Day smacked to right field to score two runs to make it 6-5 Spokane, which is now tied with the Dust Devils at 6-7 in the second-half standings.
“That’s why you’ve got to forget about those first three at-bats,” Day said. “I was just living in the moment and I came up big.”
The Dust Devils struck first in the top of the second inning when AJ Kennedy smacked a double to left field to score Kodie Tidwell, who led off the inning with a single.
The Indians answered in the bottom of the third inning when Forbes hit a single and advanced to second base on a throwing error by Carlos Belen.
Byrd singled to left field to score Forbes and tie the game at 1. Dylan Moore crushed a double to score Byrd and briefly give Spokane the lead at 2-1.
Both teams got hot in the fifth inning. It started with a throwing error by Forbes that set the table for a rally that ended with a 3-2 Dust Devils lead.
It wouldn’t last long.
Spokane shortstop Yeson Yrizarri started the bottom of the fifth with a single up the middle. Forbes followed with a single to right field, and Byrd got yet another hit to load the bases.
With the table set, Moore hit a sharp grounder that was mishandled. The ball skipped out into shallow center field allowing Yrizarri and Forbes to score to make it 4-3 Spokane.
The Dust Devils came right back in the top of the sixth inning when Justin Pacchioli hit a two-run, line-drive home run and just like that the Dust Devils retook the lead 5-4.
The hit parade continued in the bottom of the sixth when Indians’ catcher Sherman Lacrus led off with a bunt single. Tri City reliever Elvin Liriano then hit Tyler Sanchez.
After two strikeouts by Liriano, Forbes walked to load the bases to set up Day’s big two-run single. Forbes then scored on a wild pitch for the final score to make it 7-5.
Adam Choplick came on in the seventh inning and immediately gave up a single and walked the next batter on four pitches. Hulett said he immediately called to get someone throwing in the bullpen.
But the 6-foot-8, 261-pounder started mowing batters down.
“Once he got in his groove … he was on,” Hulett said of Choplick. “That was good to see.”