Dust Devils infielder Adrian Placencia homers in ninth, Spokane Indians edged by Tri-City 3-2
Adrian Placencia hit a go-ahead solo home run in the top of the ninth inning and the Tri-City Dust Devils defeated the Spokane Indians 3-2 in the opener of a six-game High-A Northwest League series at Avista Stadium on Tuesday.
Indians reliever Alan Perdomo recorded the first two outs of the inning and got to two strikes against Placencia.
But pitch No. 5 of the at-bat got too much of the plate, and the 21-year-old leadoff hitter crushed it over the left-field fence for his sixth home run of the season.
The Indians put runners at second and third with one down in the bottom half. Manager Robinson Cancel called for a suicide squeeze play, but Caleb Hobson popped up the bunt and it was caught by Placencia, who threw back to third for the game-ending double play.
The bright spot for the Indians was Braxton Hyde, who was nails out of the bullpen, tossing three scoreless innings. He allowed one hit and two walks with two strikeouts.
“I just came out when they needed me to,” Hyde said. “I trusted my teammates, and trusted my stuff, and trusted my catcher back there, and tried to do what I could.”
Hyde, a 23-year-old in his second stint with the team, has struggled this season. He’s 1-0 but with a 6.35 ERA and 1.81 WHIP over 13 games entering play.
“There’s no doubt about that,” he said of his rough start. “But I’ve kept trusting myself and just going out there and trusting everybody else behind me as well my coaches.”
Indians starting pitcher Michael Prosecky had a tough time getting going with the rare 11 a.m. start. He issued three walks in the first inning and allowed a run on a fielder’s choice.
The walks hurt Prosecky again in the third. Ben Foster led off with a walk, stole second and scored on Randy De Jesus’ one-out single.
Prosecky was lifted in favor of Hyde in the fourth. Prosecky gave up two runs on three hits, walking five and striking out three. He threw 76 pitches, 41 for strikes.
Indians catcher Cole Messina halved the deficit in the fourth with a long solo homer to left-center, his fourth of the season.
The Indians tied it in the fifth.
With two down, Tri-City reliever Jorge Marcheco hit Braylen Wimmer. Aidan Longwell laced a double into the right-field corner and Wimmer beat the relay throw easily.
It stayed that way until the ninth, when the Dust Devils collected the go-ahead run on one swing, and the Indians’ rally unraveled on another.
Transactions: Outfielder Charlie Condon was assigned to the team from the Colorado Rockies’ Arizona Complex League team. Condon, the Rockies’ first-round selection (No. 3 overall) in the 2024 MLB draft, missed the first few weeks of the season recovering from a nondisplaced fracture in his left wrist sustained during spring training.
In 27 at -bats in Arizona, Condon hit .296/.345/.407 with three RBIs and a stolen base. With the Indians in 2024, Condon hit .180 with one homer and 11 RBIs in 25 games.
Left-hander Welinton Herrera was promoted to Double-A Hartford.
In 15 games with the Indians this season, the 21-year-old went 1-0 and had 10 saves with an 0.49 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 181/3 innings.