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Spokane Indians

Spokane Indians notebook: Braylen Wimmer earns NWL player of the week; Indians starters tops in innings pitched

Spokane INF/OF Braylen Wimmer was named Northwest League player of the week on Monday. (James Snook/Spokane Indians)
By Dave Nichols daven@spokesman.com(509) 459-5441

The Spokane Indians split a six-game series in Everett last week, but that didn’t put a damper on Braylen Wimmer’s hot streak.

The 24-year-old utility player was named Northwest League player of the week after hitting .360/.370/.840 in six games with three doubles, three home runs and eight RBIs against the AquaSox.

It was just another strong week in a season full of them so far for Wimmer, who is hitting .297/.369/.453 in 50 games. He has 14 doubles, six homers, 27 RBIs and is 19 for 20 in stole n-base attempts, second in the NWL in steals.

Hot/not hitters: Jared Thomas once again paced the offense, hitting .400 (6 for 20) over the week with four walks, a homer, four RBIs and two stolen bases. Charlie Condon hit his first homer of the season and first since August and went 7 of 18 (.389) in five games.

Skyler Messinger struggled against Everett. The 26-year-old third baseman went 3 for 21 in five games, but did pop a home run. Jean Perez got into three games and went 2 for 13 while Andy Perez went 5 for 21 (.238) over five games.

On the mound: Indians starting pitchers Michael Prosecky, Alberto Pacheco and Konner Eaton – all lefties – are Nos. 1, 2 and 4 in the league in innings pitched. Prosecky is first in the league in strikeouts with 63 in 55 innings, while Pacheco and Eaton are tied for fifth with 50.

Lebarron Johnson, who joined the staff this week from Low-A Fresno replacing the promoted McCade Brown, had a rough go of it in his High-A debut. The 22-year-old righty allowed five runs in 51/3 innings on four hits and two walks. He hit two batters and gave up a homer in the 10-inning 9-8 loss on Thursday.

Wide open: The NWL first half finishes on June 19 and with 15 games to go the Indians (26-25) are in the thick of things, one game behind leader Hillsboro (27-24).

That shouldn’t be too surprising, though – each of the six teams in the league are within three games, with no team more than three games above or below .500 at this point.

So far this season, the Indians have only one winning streak longer than three games (five, May 10-15), but followed that with their only losing streak longer than three games (four, May 16-20).

Breaking through: Heriberto Hernandez, a 25-year-old outfielder who played on the 2019 Indians team, made his MLB debut with the Miami Marlins over the weekend. Hernandez was signed by the Texas Rangers as a minor league free agent in 2017 and played three games with the Indians in 2019.

Hernandez is one of the last players to have played in Spokane as a member of the Rangers organization to make his MLB debut. In 568 career minor league games, he in hitting .260/380/.498 with 104 homers and 372 RBIs.

This week: The Indians start a six-game series at Avista Stadium against league-leader Hillsboro on Tuesday. Game time Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday is 6:36 p.m. Friday’s game is at 7:05 for fireworks and Sunday is at 1:05.