Spokane Indians struggle with runners on, fall in series opener to Vancouver 5-1

VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Spokane Indians outhit the Vancouver Canadians but had trouble pushing them across and fell 5-1 in the opener of a six-game High-A Northwest League series on Tuesday at Nat Bailey Park on Tuesday.

Charlie Condon led the way with a 4-for-5 effort, but the Indians went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.

The Canadians (30-28) won their fifth in a row and seventh out of eight in June. They leapfrogged the Indians (29-29) into three-way tie for first place with Hillsboro and Everett with eight games remaining in the first half.

Five teams are within one game of claiming the first-half playoff spot. 

The Canadians got on the board in the third inning when Carter Cunningham led off the inning with a solo home run off Indians starting pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr., Cunningham’s fifth of the season. 

They added to the lead in the fifth with another longball, this time courtesy of Sean Keys – a two-run shot and his seventh of the campaign. 

Vancouver put the first two batters of the sixth on before Victor Arias tripled to right field, bringing home both runners to make it 5-0. 

It stayed that way until the eighth, when the Indians finally scored on a solo homer by Skyler Messinger, his seventh of the season. 

Johnson (0-2) went 3 1/3 innings and allowed three hits and four walks with six strikeouts. He threw 86 pitches, 44 for strikes. 

Canadians starter Khal Stephen (2-0) struck out nine over six shutout innings.

Transactions: Shortstop Andy Perez and pitcher Jordy Vargas were removed from the roster before the series. Perez was sent to Low-A Fresno and Vargas was returned to the Colorado Rockies Arizona Complex League team. 

Perez is hitting .220/.274/.344 with six homers 27 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 54 games this season. Vargas, who is in his first season back from ligament replacement surgery, is 0-4 with a 7.84 ERA in 10 starts for the Indians.