When you’re five runs down before you even swing a bat, the tendency for many baseball teams would be to take your foot off the gas and ride it out. So if there’s a positive to come from yet another Ryne Tacker pitching implosion last night, it would be that the C’s didn’t give up, even after he put them five down after 0.2 IP.

In fact, the C’s came charging home like buffalo in a bad mood.

I’ll let my late night write-up at The Sun take it from here:

Starting pitcher Ryne ‘Thumb’ Tacker surrendered five earned runs in 0.2 innings pitched to open the game, putting the hometown C’s in a hole they would work hard, but ultimately fail, to get out of.

David Thomas and Mitch LeVier had 2-4 nights for Vancouver, with Thomas driving in two runs and walking twice, while Dusty Napoleon, Dante Love and Francisco Tirado each grabbed an RBI.

With the ball, Matt Fitts threw 4.1 innings of one-hit long relief for the C’s, giving the boys in red and white every chance to get back in the game, but three earned runs given up by his replacement, Edgar Tejada, made it Spokane’s night.

Only one thing to add: the definition of futility is repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different result. Stop starting Ryne Tacker. It’s not healthy for him, it’s not good for the team, and it sucks for the fans. Whatever is wrong with him right now needs to be worked out somewhere not called ‘in front of 3000 paying customers.’

July 10, 2008
	Final    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9      R   H   E   Spokane   5   0   0   0   0   2   1   0   0      8   11   0   Vancouver   0   0   1   0   0   3   0   0   1      5   11   1  Recap | Box W: R. Bleier (2-0, 2.45); L: R. Tacker (0-4, 9.82); SV: R. Schlecht (2) HR: None.