Bryson Hammer plays stopper, Spokane Indians use third inning homers to hold off Tri-City 5-4 | NWL baseball

The Spokane Indians took one on the chin on Sunday, getting beat by the Everett AquaSox 21-3 in the conclusion of that abbreviated three-game series.

To add insult to injury, on Tuesday, the Seattle Mariners promoted several key players off that AquaSox team to Double-A Arkansas.

The Indians, who were tied by Everett at the top of the league standings over the weekend, were left to dust themselves off and take on the Tri-City Dust Devils this week in their pursuit of a second-half title.

They got off to a good start.

Jacob Humphrey and Tanner Thach hit back-to-back homers in the third inning to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, and the Indians held off Dust Devils 5-4 in the opener of a six-game High-A Northwest League series at Avista Stadium on Tuesday.

“We definitely needed that as a team,” Thach said. “It was a good bounce back, and we gained good momentum for the rest of the week.”

Indians starter Bryson Hammer was strong through five innings and ran into trouble just once – two errors in the top of the third led to a three-run home run – but he struck out six and walked none.

Thach induced several tappers out in front of home plate that turned into easy outs, picked up either by him or catcher Alan Espinal.

“We talked pregame about getting it inside (to the batter) and working it down (in the zone),” Hammer said. “That’s what we did early, and they just kept hitting it into the ground so there was no need to change. Felt good about it.”

Hammer also felt good he could play “stopper” after the lopsided loss on Sunday.

“After that football score we gave up, it was obviously a little embarrassing,” he said. “I think we all took that personally a little bit coming into this week. We knew that in order for us to be able to get back to first place we had to play better than that.”

The Indians (16-9) loaded the bases in the first inning off Tri-City starter Zachary Rednar but didn’t push any across. They broke through in the second though.

With one down, Espinal walked, and Kelvin Hidalgo singled to put runners at the corners, then Hidalgo stole second. That brought up Tommy Hopfe (3-for-5), who lined his second base hit of the game into right field to plate both runners.

Hammer cruised through the first eight batters he faced, but back-to-back infield errors put two on with two down in the third. Capri Ortiz followed with a long homer to left, his sixth of the season, to give Tri-City (10-15) the lead.

It didn’t last long. Humphrey and Thach hit consecutive homers to lead off the bottom half off Redner, with Thach’s clearing the scoreboard in right center, to put the Indians up 4-3.

“First at-bat, I was chasing some pitches,” Thach said. “But I got a hung curveball up and was able to put a good swing on it.”

They added another run with two down in the inning when Hidalgo singled, went to third on a single by Hopfe, and scored on a bad relay throw to the infield.

Hammer recovered from the longball to put up two more shutout innings. He gave way to Brayan Castillo, on a minor league rehab assignment from Triple-A Albuquerque, in the sixth and he tossed two shutout innings of relief. Hunter Mann pitched the last two innings for his fifth save of the season.

“All our pitchers did a great job filling up the zone,” Thach said.