Yanquiel Fernandez hits 17th homer, Spokane Indians blow big lead in 8-5 loss to Eugene

From staff reports

Ghordy Santos and Max Wright hit back-to-back home runs in a six-run seventh inning, and the Eugene Emeralds came from behind to beat the Spokane Indians 8-5 in a Northwest League game at Avista Stadium on Thursday.

The Indians (32-27) remained one game behind Vancouver in the race for the first-half title with six games to play. The Canadians also own the tiebreaker.

Eugene (30-30) won its second in a row and leads the six-game series 2-1.

Yanquiel Fernandez hit his league-leading 17th home run of the season for Spokane, and Benny Montgomery went 3 for 3 with a run and an RBI.

Indians starting pitcher Jarrod Cande was enjoying one of his better outings of the season until he ran into trouble in the seventh. Leading 5-1, Cande gave up a double and two homers to start the inning and left with a one-run lead. Manager Robinson Cancel turned to reliever Luis Amoroso (2-1), who immediately gave up back-to-back doubles to tie the game at 5.

After a groundout, Carter Howell’s RBI triple gave Eugene the lead. Howell later scored on a sacrifice fly to the track to make it 7-5.

Eugene’s Edison Mora, who started the series hitting .140, hit his second homer in as many games in the ninth inning off Bryce McGowan.

Cande allowed four runs on seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts. He threw 84 pitches, 53 for strikes.

Spokane’s Zach Kokoska led off the second with a single and scored on Juan Guerrero’s triple, his league-leading sixth of the season. Ben Sems singled home Guerrero, and Adael Amador tripled and scored on Montgomery’s single later in the inning.

Fernandez hit a solo homer in the third.

Eugene got on the board in the fourth as Carter Howell doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly.

The Indians added a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Fernandez to make it 5-1.