Good Deal!
EUGENE, OR - Canadians pitcher Scott Deal allowed no runs and only
three hits in a masterful performance Saturday night to help the C’s
beat the Eugene Emeralds 5-0. Deal went six shutout innings on the
night to improve his record to 6-0 with a 1.38 ERA. Deal also struck
out five Emeralds batters. Reliever Jason Fernandez went the final
three innings and allowed only two hits.
– Special to The Province

The above is what you would have found in today’s Vancouver Province newspaper, relating the victory last night of the Vancouver Canadians over the Eugene Emeralds. It made me laugh, and here’s why:

See that bit at the bottom - "Special to The Province"? It’s a lie.

The text in question came directly from the official Vancouver
Canadians post-game press release, which is emailed out to every media
outlet in town after each game. Here’s the rest of it:

The Canadians managed only five hits on the night, but they
made the most of their offensive chances. The C’s broke open the
scoring in the third inning with two runs and then put the game away in
the eighth with three more. Sam Hernandez and Greg Dowling had two RBI
apiece.

The Canadians continue their road trip on Sunday with a 4:05 start at
Eugene. The game can be heard at www.canadiansbaseball.com. For more
information on the Vancouver Canadians, please visit our website at
www.canadiansbaseball.com.

I guess maybe that whole "Special to The Province" thing wasn’t a total
lie.. after all, it is pretty special whenever The Province actually
publishes words about the Vancouver Canadians - special and rare.

Just a shame they can’t be bothered actually taking the time to write
them personally, or at least give credit to the people who did.

I was out last night with friends, so I didn’t get to hear the
Canadians webcast, but an Oakland fan based in Eugene by the name of
‘LoveDemAs’ posted a great, very detailed post-game report at Athletics Nation, which I heartily recommend you go and read.

A piece for those who don’t like to read entire posts:

When you’re pitching in 100 degree temperatures, you need
to work fast, throw strikes, and get your team back in the dugout as
quickly as possible. Deal ran into a little trouble in the 2nd inning
with a leadoff walk followed by a single but wiggled out of trouble
with a strikeout with runners on the corners and one out followed by a
soft lineout to second.

Deal, working quickly and trusting his defense, then proceeded to mow
Eugene down for the next four innings, giving up only a dunk single in
with two outs in the 3rd and a one-out walk in the 6th, before ending
his night with the final line 6IP 0R 3H 5K 2BB 1WP. Deal threw 37
pitches in the first two innings (22 in the 2nd), but only threw 47 in
his remaining 4 innings (56/28 strike/ball ratio).

Deal absolutely pounds the bottom of the strike zone, mixing a live
fastball with a wicked changeup and a dead fish breaking ball. The
Eugene hitters were looking pretty silly last night with all five Deal
strikeouts being of the swinging variety.

More here.
 

July 22, 2006
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Vancouver 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0 5 5 0 Eugene 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 2 wrap | box | log W: S. Deal (6-0, 1.38); L: A. Breit (0-1, 3.24); SV: J. Fernandez (1) HR: None.