Jordan Beck, Adael Amador drive offense; Spokane Indians beat Everett 15-8 to split series

Now that the weather has warmed up from the near-freezing temperatures of the first couple of weeks of April, several of the Spokane Indians batters have warmed up as well.

One of those batters benefiting most is outfielder Jordan Beck.

Beck continued his hot streak on Sunday, going 3 for 5 with a three-run homer and RBI double and the Indians bounced back after Saturday night’s extra-innings loss to beat the Everett AquaSox 15-8 and split the six-game High-A Northwest League series at Avista Stadium.

Spokane scored 48 runs and hit 13 homers in the series.

“You definitely don’t want to blow it late, but sometimes that’s what happens in baseball,” Beck said of Saturday’s loss. “It is what it is, and you show up to the park and it’s a new day.”

Beck started the season 0 for 18 but has hit .300 (12 for 40) since with three homers and 12 RBIs.

“When we first got here, (the ball) was going nowhere,” he said. “Now it’s flying a little bit and I think that’s given our hitters some more confidence. So, let’s keep the ball rolling.”

Joining Beck on the hit parade Sunday was Adael Amador, who went 2 for 5 with a pair of two-run home runs, and Yanquiel Fernandez, who homered and knocked in three.

Indians starter Carson Palmquist went four innings and allowed three runs on three hits and three walks with six strikeouts. He gave up two home runs.

“Just not sharp enough,” Kibler said of Palmquist, who has been fighting a blister issue on his pitching hand. “I’ve seen him sharp in spring training – at instructionals he was very sharp. He hasn’t been real sharp a couple of times out now. Got to work on that.”

Palmquist walked the first batter of the game, Jonatan Clase, and with two down Tyler Locklear crushed one over the netting beyond the left field wall for a two-run homer.

The Indians answered in the bottom half. Sterlin Thompson (2 for 4, .463) laced a one-out single then Fernandez hit one off the scoreboard above the right-center wall off Everett starter Bernie Martinez to even it at 2-2.

Braiden Ward led off the third with a single and stole second base. He trotted home on Amador’s long homer to right center, his first of the season.

Thompson followed with a triple high off the center field wall and scored on a grounder to the right side by Fernandez. The Indians added another run on Beck’s RBI double, ending Martinez’ afternoon.

“He was flipping a lot of off-speed to the guys before, so I was kind of looking for an off-speed pitch and was just reacting to heaters at that point,” Beck said.

Christian Navarro greeted reliever Tyler Driver with an RBI single, and Ward’s bunt single plated the sixth run of the inning to make it 8-2.

Locklear hit his second homer of the day in the fourth off Palmquist, but the lefty managed to strand two runners to limit the damage. Palmquist threw 90 pitches, 50 for strikes and has failed to go beyond four innings in his last two starts.

“I was short (in the pen) today,” Kibler said. “So, I just needed the starter to go deep into the game. Get some guys in and maybe have an easy one. That’s exactly what I was thinking but it didn’t exactly turn out that way.”

The AquaSox picked up a run in the fifth off reliever Luis Amoroso on a double by Harry Ford and single by Ben Ramirez.

Everett loaded the bases in the seventh on a double and two walks, but Angel Chivilli came on to strike out James Parker to end the threat.

The Indians batted around for the second time in the game in the bottom half, with Beck and Amador both dialing deep.

“I got word from a few guys that faced (reliever Payton Alford) and said that he had a loopy breaking ball, so I was ready for the heater. I saw it pop up and I was just ready to go,” Beck said.

For the second game in a row, the bullpen was victimized for a big inning late, with Chivilli and Juan Mejia combining to allow four runs in the eighth immediately following the Indians rally.

Mejia was ineffective in Saturday’s game as well.

“The thought behind that was get (Mejia) back out there, get his confidence back up. Don’t let him sit around and think about a bad outing like that,” Kibler said.

“Overall, we need to get better. We need to attack; we need to throw more strikes – way too many three-ball counts.”