McCade Brown dominates over five innings, Spokane Indians edged by Tri-City 3-2

Spokane Indians starting pitcher McCade Brown has had a strong start to the 2025 season, his first full season returning from elbow ligament replacement surgery. On Saturday, although he did not factor into the decision, the 24-year-old outdid himself.

The 24-year-old Brown entered play with a 1.88 ERA with 37 strikeouts over 28 ⅔ innings, holding opposing batters to a .196 average.

On Saturday, Brown struck out 11, allowing just one hit over five shutout innings. But in a close game, the bullpen and bats couldn’t pull it out.

Tri-City hit two solo home runs in the eighth inning, the Indians stranded five in the final two innings and the Dust Devils edged Spokane 3-2 in the fifth of a six-game High-A Northwest League series at Avista Stadium.

“Fastball was there, the slider was working and threw a couple changes even,” Brown said. “(Catcher) Cole (Messina) and I were working earlier this week, trying to get the curveball going. I thought we did pretty well during the week to work on it and had that going a little bit today.”

Brown whiffed five of the first seven Tri-City (22-21) batters he faced, with a 3-2 walk his only blemish.

He added another strikeout in the third before striking out the side for the second time in the fourth.

“When it comes, it comes,” Brown said of the strikeouts. “I’m not going out chasing them or anything. If we find ourselves in a two-strike count, maybe we’ll get a little bit greedy with it and try and be a little finer. But, you know, I’m just trying to trust (Messina) back there and keep throwing what he’s calling.”

In the bottom of the fourth, Andy Perez put the Indians (22-22) on the board with an opposite-field home run over the left-field wall, his fifth of the season.

Brown gave up his first hit of the game, Arol Vera’s two-out single, in the fifth. But he came back to get Peter Burns swinging with a 3-2 changeup on his 91st pitch of the game – 54 of which were strikes.

“Obviously, it’s been a long road coming back from Tommy John (surgery),” Brown said. “I got (23) innings in last year, but I’m finally getting to go and getting extended. These are the most pitches I’ve thrown in games in a while, so the arm’s feeling good and I’m just going to keep building off it and keep going from there.”

Francis Rivera took over on the hill for the Indians in the sixth. He allowed the first three Dust Devils to reach, the last Ben Gobbel’s RBI double to tie it.

Messina broke that tie with a one-out solo home run, his fifth of the season.

It stayed that way until the eighth, when Tri-City’s Ryan Nicholson clubbed a home run over the caboose in right-center off reliever Alan Perdomo for his sixth homer of the season. Two batters later, Matt Coutney hit one over the left-center wall, his fifth of the season, to put the Dust Devils up 3-2.

Braylen Wimmer led off the bottom half with a bunt single, and Messina walked. Perez couldn’t get a two-strike bunt attempt down, Skyler Messinger waved through a fastball and Tevin Tucker struck out swinging to end the threat.

The Indians loaded the bases in the ninth with a pair of walks and an infield single, but Messina struck out to leave them stranded.

The series concludes Sunday at 1:05 p.m.