Right now, the Vancouver Canadians are in the kind of form, at least defensively, where you honestly go into each game expecting them to win. This afternoon’s traveling pitching clinic was run by Jimmy Shull and Brad Davis, who were some kind of dominant at Eugene Oregon’s Empire Stadium as the Eugene Emeralds tried to knock over Northwest League frontrunners, the mighty C’s.

The game opened beautifully for the visitors, as Chalon Tietje opened with a walk and Chad ‘Tum-Tum’ Boyd knocked him along with a single. Squeaky Kleen grounded them both into scoring position, which was all the encouragement Wes ‘Long-Gone’ Long then needed to crack a 2-run double down the left field line. The Emeralds hadn’t even had a chance to swing yet, and already they were in trouble.

Or at least they should have been, but for the most part, that was all the C’s had in them for the next four innings, a fact made easier to deal with by the presence of Jimmy Shull (pictured right) on the mound. Over the first four innings of the game, Shull absolutely owned the Eugene offense, sending down a whopping 8 strikeouts while conceding only four hits. When he left the game in the 5th, the Eugene crowd was ecstatic to see him go, having witnessed a superb pitching display that had the home team guessing from the outset, but if the Oregonians thought they were going to face a softballer in Shull’s place, they were dead wrong. Though Brad Davis was a little wild, giving up a single, a wild pitch, and a walk in his opening inning, he also managed to strike out the subsequent two hitters to end the inning clean.

At the other end, the 5th brought the Canadians a little offensive relief, as Wes Long (pictured left) again doubled down the left field line (for the third time in three trips to the plate), before catcher Ty Bubalo, mired in a dire hitting slump and with his father, a former minor-league coach, in attendance, drilled a base hit up the middle to give Vancouver a 3-0 cushion.

In the top of the 7th the offense continued, with Sellers and Omura making their way to base with no outs, but just when you think these Canadians are about to explode with the bat, they have a real tendency to crumble instead. With only a deep fly needed to score a run, Tietje struck out, then Boyd did likewise, and Kleen grounded out to leave two men stranded in scoring position. These are the kinds of innings that can turn slim leads into slim losses, and if not for the ungodly pitching staff that inhabits the Vancouver Canadians locker room right now, this game might have turned on the visitors.

Indeed, Eugene scored a run in the 8th on a Daryl Jones double and a Kelvin Vazquez single, but with Michael ‘Mr Blonde’ Madsen coming in to throw 4 precarious innings of late relief, the Emeralds simply didn’t have the pop to stop the C’s from extending their road-trip dominance to nine straight away victories. Madsen gets the win and extends the Canadians’ NWL lead to five games, which is quite incredible considering they’ve only played 20 games in the season to this point.

July 10, 2005
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Vancouver 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 7 1 Eugene 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 7 1 wrap | box | log W: M. Madsen (2-0, 0.53); L: B. Krosschell (1-3, 5.23); HR: None.

Game notes:
* Wes Long had a blinder of a game today, going 3 from 3 with 3 doubles, 2 RBIs and a run scored, but he nearly blinded himself in the top of the 7th when his own foul tip caught him flush in the face. Long was taken from the field with blood gushing from a facial wound, but the Vancouver trainer said, “He’s going to have a hell of a scar, but he’ll be fine.” Long will be taken for a precautionary x-ray tonight, but all indications suggest he’ll be back at the plate in a few days.

* So who or what is Jimmy Shull? In an effort to educate C’s fans as to exactly what The Shullacker brings to the table, here’s the MLB scouting report from a year ago.

LARGE, ATHLETIC FRAME. LEAN & SLENDER THROUGHOUT. BROAD, SLOPING SHOULDERS. FLAT, TAPERS TO TRIM WAIST. EXCELLENT STRENGTH POTENTIAL. NO WINDUP, 3/4 DELIVERY. ATHLETIC RHP W/ YOUNG ARM. FB 87-89 W/ ARM SIDE RUN & SINK OUT OF ZONE, RIDING LIFE UP. TRUE SLIDER, HARD W/ LATE, TIGHT BITE. DEVELOPED SPLIT, OTHER PITCH, OCCASIONAL LATE DROP W/ DEPTH, DECEPTION. ARM W/ GOOD ATHLETIC ABILITY & APTITUDE. USES BOTH SIDES OF PLATE W/ FB. KEEPS HITTERS OFF BALANCE. SLIDER MISSES BATS, SPLIT CATCHES OFF GUARD. FUTURE 3-PITCH MIX.

That’s not a bad rap, and he’s only got better in the years since. Oh, and he can hit too, having hit .300 as a freshman in college.

* When a 1 from 4 performance gives you cause to celebrate, you know you’re in ahard slump, but there wouldn’t have been a wider smile anywhere in Empire Stadium tonight than that of Ty Bubalo as he stood on first base having driven in Vancouver’s third run of the evening. Bubalo’s average has been horrendous all year, and though that hit only takes his average up to .158 from the .147 he started tonight’s game with, an RBI in a close situation is nothing to be sneezed at. All Ty needs is two or three good games and he’s back in strong stat country, so be sure to cheer hard for him when the C’s come back to The Nat on Wednesday.

* We say it over and over again, but Vancouver’s pitching rotation is insanely filthy. The team ERA has now dropped to 2.36 after tonight’s one-run outing, and it’s now starting to draw attention from further afield. Oakland Athletics blogs have been rife with talk of the ’six-headed monster’ in Vancouver, but truth be told, there’s about nine heads to this hard-throwing hydra, each of them nastier than the first. Of course, when you’re staff are throwing like this, it gives the opposition real confidence nightmares, which only makes the pitching harder to hit, so if the C’s don’t get cocky (and if their hitting improves), we could be seeing the start of something nutso.

* Today at the All-Star Futures game, 2004 Vancouver Canadian Javier Herrera went 1 from 1, with a walk and an RBI, which is a great performance from a guy in single-A ball against the best of AA. The Dallas News described Herrera as “a blur of a center fielder.”

* 2004 Vancouver Canadians pitcher Steve Sharpe has been sent down from Kane County to the rookie leagues in Arizona to sort out his form. In his first game, Sharpe threw six innings for no runs scored. If all goes well (for Vancouver fans and Sharpe), we might see Sharpe (who is a genuinely nice guy) back at The Nat soon. In other alumni news, Shawn Martinez threw two scoreless innings for Kane County yesterday after his recent promotion. Git ‘em, Big Mac.

* According to The Midland Reporter, 2004 Vancouver Canadian “Dallas Braden notched his 13th victory of the season Friday [for the Midland Rockhounds], giving him the most wins of any pitcher in minor league baseball. Braden, whose total also includes six at Single-A Stockton, was tied with Zach Duke for the lead. Duke was recently promoted to the Pittsburgh Pirates.”

Stay tuned to this space tomorrow for game 3 of the Eugene series. If you can’t be there, you can listen to the webcast call at CanadiansBaseball.com.