It’s been a hoot to watch this game tonight on Boise’s ‘Hawk-Vision’, as the Vancouver Canadians utterly obliterated the Cubs short-season affiliate, getting runners on base in every single inning, and crossing the plate in 5 of them, for a 9-2 victory that was about as absolute as any I’ve seen.
Just last night, Vancouver broke a five-game losing skid with a tight victory over the Hawks that depended largely on the bottom of the order and some damn fine pitching. The big question for today was always going to be whether that would set off a resurgence of Vancouver’s early season form, or be just a blip on the radar as they fell back into old habits of errors, impatience and lack of concentration.
And over the first few innings, as Vancouver repeated their routine of the last five days - getting someone on base every inning but not getting them over the plate - you’d have been within your rights to assume the worst.
Center fielder Mike Massaro singled to lead-off in the 1st, but a double play and a strike-out killed the inning. In the 2nd, catcher Shawn Callahan singled, only for a pair of K’s and a ground-out to leave him stranded.
But in the 3rd, the gamers decided enough was enough, and it was none other than the curtain-climber of the team, fresh high school draftee Justin Sellers, who sparked the scoreboard into action with a single to center. When Mike Massaro dropped down a bunt, the base-running speed of ‘Michiro’ panicked Boise pitcher Mitch Atkins, who duly sent the ball zipping past the first baseman into right field. Sellers, no slouch when he’s on his toes, ripped around the bases as right fielder Johnny Defendis ripped the ball into home… and past home.. and thudding into the backstop, as Sellers scored the opening run.
Taking his lead from the scrawny folk, Chalon Tietje then emerged to stride the plate like a Collossus, wait for the right pitch to rip on, and dispatch it deep into center, allowing Massaro to score from 3rd.
Vancouver were on the board, and they were just getting warmed up.
After Callahan was left stranded after a double in the 4th, Boise managed to return fire, with Jesus Valdez knocking home Brandon Taylor to make the scores. That run was quickly nullified, however, when Mike Massaro decided to expand his list of abilities to include home-run hitting, with a solo shot over the wall in left center.
Yes, that’s right, Mike Massaro went yard.
It was just that kind of game. But it wasn’t over.
Chalon Tietje, down 1-2, stood with his bat on his shoulder through three straight pitches, drawing one of the most patient walks since Hannibal took the elephants out for a stroll across the Alps. Haas Pratt then doubled Tietje home, and the Vancouver snowball was picking up speed.
Top of the 6th, and the fever was a-catching. Isaac Omura doubled a fly ball off the wall at center, then Justin Sellers again brought the unexpected with a bunt between the pitcher and 2nd baseman that nobody could get to in time, pushing Omura to 3rd. With Tietje at the plate, Sellers once again pulled something special out of his hat, by gunning for 2nd, bringing about a throw from catcher Mark Reed that the second baseman couldn’t reel in, allowing Omura to steal home to make the score 5-1.
Boise, on the other hand, were getting killed by Vancouver starter Mike Madsen. ‘Mr Blonde’ gave up five hits in his six innings of work, including one run knocked in, and though he wasn’t smoking through the Hawks with K’s, he was keeping the grounders coming and the flyballs short enough to not matter.
The Boise pitchers, meanwhile, were being caned - and even if they had ideas of staging a comeback, Vancouver’s ferocious base-running, patient ball-watching, and solid hitting was giving them no rest. Whenever Boise started to look solid, a defensive error would turn the tide back to Vancouver, and the more errors that happened, the more looked likely.
In the 7th, an error at shortstop helped Steve Kleen to base, while a walk to ‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan, and a Jeff Bieker single to right field loaded the bases for Isaac Omura. The Flyin’ Hawaiian, patient as Job, had the pitcher wiping sweat from his brow as he fouled off corner-painters and watched away stray balls. Before long, Boise pitcher Jose Ortiz lost his mind long enough to have a balk called, which scored Kleen without Omura having to swing the bat.
And as if to rub salt into the wound, Omura got his walk after all.
When you’re up by a score of 6-1, you generally see it as a time to start giving the bit-part players a little action, so in came Danielin ‘Inexacto’ Acevedo. I’ve been riding Acevedo kinda hard the last few times he’s come in to pitch, mostly because he’s throwing grapefruits right now, and has blown some close games.
Today, as he stood at the mound, I said a quiet prayer of sorts, hoping that Inexacto would put that nickname to rest with a clean inning.
Jesus Valdez stood at the plate awaiting Acevedo’s first pitch, and when that pitch came in, Valdez swung at it and swung at it hard. It wasn’t just hit, it was exploded upon, and if it’s still going presently, as I suspect it might be, the US government really needs to send up some jet fighters to shoot the thing down before it gets to a center of population.
Acevedo remained shaky (though it must be said, he does have good stuff on occasion), but an Omura-Sellers-Kleen double play closed out the inning and got Inexacto off the hook at just the right juncture.
In the end, it wouldn’t matter. Massaro doubled to open the 8th, and Chalon Tietje singled him home, getting to 3rd on a second throwing error from the Boise right fielder, Johnny ‘Defenseless’ Defendis. A Haas Pratt single scored Tietje, making the score 8-2, and by this point the only reason for Hawks fans to stick around was in case the ‘beer batter’ managed a base hit, thus bringing the price of Coors Light to $1 each.
‘Dangerous’ Bradley Davis came in to replace Acevedo in the 8th, and did exactly as he’s been doing all season long - gave up no runs.
It would have been easy to coast at this point if you were a Vancouver player; the game had been long ago won and everyone had notched at least one hit in the game, but when you’ve been losing games you’re used to winning, and you’re at the ass end of a long road trip to potato country, the last thing you want to do is coast.
If you’re any kind of ball player, you turn the knife and you turn it hard, so when the C’s came out for the 9th, they were in the mood for double figures. A series of walks to Isaac Omura and Mike Massaro put the Hawks on edge enough that a standard double play became a throwing error to 1st, and a run scored by Justin Sellers.
John Herrera closed the game out, final score 9-2, and the Canadians have leveled the series with Boise at 2-2.
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Game notes:
* Every Vancouver hitter notched at least one single tonight, with Shawn Callahan, Mike Massaro and Haas Pratt having multi-hit outings. It’s a nice change for the C’s to rack up 15 hits in 9 innings, especially since even when they were winning 80% of their games, they were doing it with scores of 3-2 and 4-3.
* Mike Massaro continues to eat at-bats like they’re smeared in whipped cream. Tonight his slap-hitting skills went 4-5 with a double, an RBI, 3 runs… and a DINGER. He was a triple away from hitting for the cycle, and is now batting .348 - Is there anything Michiro can’t do?
* On the mound, Mike Madsen gave up just one run over six innings, while Brad Davis pitched a scoreless 8th and ‘Long’ John Herrera chewed through the 9th. A solid pitching performance for the C’s, but we’re starting to wonder where Jeff Gray is… he hasn’t pitched in some time - is he injured or promoted?
* Another game without Travis Buck has the rumor mill running hard that he’s headed to Kane County. We’ve got the request in for info, and if we hear anything confirmed, we’ll let you know.
A big time reversal of form, a big time destruction of an opponent - this was the game where Vancouver announced they are leaders of the NWL for a reason. Tune in tomorrow for the series decider - and make sure you’re at Nat Bailey Stadium on Tuesday for the home series against the Spokane Indians.
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