Kyle Karros homers, then Spokane Indians use ‘small ball’ to edge Everett 8-7 in extra innings

Most pitchers begin their careers as a starter. But there comes a time in almost every pitcher’s career when they either figure out how to get batters out the third time through the lineup, or they transition to reliever. For some, that realization comes early in the process. Others might have the choice made for them in their journey toward the big leagues.

Spokane Indians starter Victor Juarez is only 20 years old in his second season at High-A, so he still has plenty of time to figure it out. But Tuesday’s day game against the Everett AquaSox provided another learning opportunity for the young hurler.

Juarez has been successful for the most part this season, with an ERA under 3.00 over seven appearances entering play, but he gave up a lot of contact and hit the wall hard, unable to get through the fifth inning. But on a day when the starter struggled a bit, the offense came through – time after time.

Jean Perez bunted home the winning run on a squeeze play in the 10th inning and the Indians edged the AquaSox 8-7 in the opener of a six-game Northwest League series at Avista Stadium.

Perez finished 3 for 5 with a run and RBI and Kyle Karros had three hits, including a three-run home run in the seventh inning, to pace the offense.

The first-place Indians (25-17) moved two games ahead of second-place Eugene (24-20) pending results of a late game.

With the free runner at second in the bottom of the 10th, Jake Snider walked, then Indians manager Robinson Cancel asked the league’s RBI leader, Robby Martin Jr., to sacrifice as a pinch hitter, moving the runners up. That brought up Perez, whose perfectly placed bunt plated catcher Jose Cordova, who was running on the pitch, with the game-winning run.

“We just find a way – it’s not always homers and doubles,” Karros said. “We can get the job done in other ways, too. And I think it says a lot about how diverse we are as a as a group. We’re never out of it.”

The Indians grabbed an early lead in the bottom of the first. Cole Carrigg led the inning off with a triple into the left field corner and scored on a groundout to the right side by Dyan Jorge.

Everett (20-25) evened it in the second when Bill Knight singled off Juarez and scored from first on a double by Victor Labrada. Juarez gave up a single and walked a pair in a scoreless third, but he benefited from a rare 2-5-2 putout on a back-pick attempt at third base in the fourth inning.

Juarez ran out of gas in the fifth. Facing the top of the order for the third time he gave up four consecutive one-out hits – the last three hard-hit doubles – which resulted in a three-run rally and ended his appearance at 91 pitches, just 58 for strikes.

“He battled today,” Indians pitching coach Blaine Beatty said. “He went through the first couple of innings where he was landing some of his sliders, and then they started laying off of them and they ended up being balls. He ended up working from behind a lot and they were sitting on his fastball. He needs to learn how to get ahead in the count and get to two strikes as fast as possible.”

In total, Juarez allowed four runs on nine hits and two walks with six strikeouts over 41/3 innings.

“You have to have a good memory,” Beattie said of the challenge of facing hitters for the third time. “You have to know how you’ve executed pitches. That’s been some of what we’ve been working on as a starting staff, being able to get through that lineup that third time. Whether you do it at the big -league level, that’s a different story. But we’re here to give them the tools and the approach and mentality.”

The Spokane offense sprang back to life in the sixth. The Indians loaded the bases with a walk and a pair of base hits, and with two down Jake Snider laced a single into the right field corner for two runs to narrow Everett’s lead to 4-3.

The AquaSox scored a run in the top of the seventh to make it 5-3, then the Indians rallied in the bottom half. Perez led off with a triple and scored on a single by Carrigg. Jorge walked, then Karros crushed a long home run to left center, his third of the season, to put the Indians ahead 7-5.

“I had some good swings earlier in the day,” Karros said. “I got a lot of fastballs that at-bat and I just missed a couple. … Sometimes a two-strike approach kind of just gets me a little shorter to the ball naturally. So, then he tried to run one in and I was just short to the ball and hit it pretty well.”

Everett’s Brock Rodden tied it in the eighth with a two-run homer off reliever Luis Amoroso over the caboose beyond the right-center field wall .