Spokane Indians pregame: Helcris Olivarez looks to help Indians halt two-game skid

The Spokane Indians (9-16) host the Tri-City Dust Devils (9-16) in the second of a six-game High-A West League series at Avista Stadium on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

Starters

Indians: 

LHP Helcris Olivarez (0-4, 5.14 ERA). It’s been a tough start to the season for the Rockies No. 7 prospect. However, last time at Avista Stadium on May 21 the southpaw had his best outing, allowing no earned runs while striking out six batters over four innings.

Dust Devils: 

LHP Hector Yan (0-2, 4.91 ERA). Yan is coming off his longest outing of the season, throwing 5 2/3 innings against Hillsboro. The lefty had six strikeouts but allowed four earned runs in a game Tri-City pulled out, 7-6.

Lineup

1) Collins-CF

2) Schunk-2B

3) Doyle-RF

4) MacIver-C

5) Toglia-1B

6) Datres-3B

7) Morgan-LF

8) Cope-DH

9) Blomgren-SS

Weather

First pitch – Sunny, 93. Final out – Clear, 73.

Player to watch

LF Luke Morgan. Morgan is making his Indians debut tonight after being called up from Low-A Fresno. The 2018 20th round pick hit .238 in just 21 at bats with Fresno. In 2018, he hit .312 playing for Scott Little’s Boise Hawks.

Last game

Nick Bush gave up four of his five hits allowed in the sixth inning, including a three-run home run by Francisco Del Valle, and the Dust Devils topped the Indians 3-1 in the first of a six-game series at Avista Stadium on Tuesday.

The Indians managed four hits and four walks against four Dust Devils pitchers.

Manager Scott Little was disappointed with his offense.

“We did a lot of very bad things offensively tonight,” he said. “We had multiple chances to get guys in from third, we couldn’t get it done. We had some walks, but we ran into some outs.

“We never got it going. Never gave ourselves a chance. We had opportunities early to kind of take some of the pressure off Nick (Bush) but we didn’t come through. There were some very poor at-bats.”