A week ago, the Canadians were closer to 10 games back of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, but now, they’re just six away from the first-place powerhouse.  Would it take a miracle for Vancouver to get into the playoffs?  Yes, but they’re still not out of the picture entirely.  

Vancouver is on the bus heading to Eugene at the moment, before coming home to face the third-place Everett Aquasox.  They’ll then finish the home-and-home with the Flipper Kids before the Emeralds come to visit to close out the home portion of the schedule.  Vancouver finishes the year on the road in Salem-Keizer.  

That’s 15 games left, and the most important three are the last trio of games.  Even if Vancouver makes up three games on the Volcanoes in their next 12 games, they’ll only be three back heading into the series with the Volcanoes.  That means a sweep would tie the teams.  Not impossible.

Salem is coming off a series when the Spokane Indians absolutely demolished them, with the Injuns taking four out of the five games.  Spokane out-scored Salem-Keizer 38-15.  Yikes.  Now the Volcanoes are heading to Everett, where they play a three-game series with the Aquasox.  After that, they have six games in a row against the Emeralds, another three-game series with Everett, before hosting the C’s to end the year.  

Salem is 2-4 vs Everett this season, and 3-3 against the Emeralds.  They play six of their last fifteen at home, and the other nine on the road.  Unfortunately, they’re much better as visitors, going 18-11 compared to the 14-18 record at home.  Vancouver’s in the same boat, with three less losses on the road, they have, however, also played three less games on the road.

Everett is absolutely pitiful on the road, with an 11-21 record, good news for C’s fans who want Everett to beat Salem, because the Flippers are 16-13 at home.

The standings look like this:
Salem is up one game on Eugene.  Everett is four back of Eugene, and five back of Keizer.  And the C’s are one back of Everett, five back of Eugene and half-a-dozen games behind Salem.

It will sure be an interesting next two weeks.

Back to baseball now, Vancouver lost two of three to the Volcanoes to open this last homestand, but took three out of five from the Boise Hawks.  The first game of the series saw Pedro Figueroa pick up his first win of the season, with his only blunder happening when he gave up a solo blast to Andrew Rundle.  Figgy two-hit the Hawks through six, striking out 7.  The three relievers, Mathieu Leblanc Poirier, Ken Smalley and Jose Guzman all pitched hit-less innings on the mound.  It was Guzman’s 12th save of the campaign.

Offensively, Julio Rivera was 2-4 with a double and a run scored, while Mitch LeVier was 1-3 with an RBI and a run.  Dave Thomas led the offence, going 2-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI, to go along with his 5th stolen base of the season.

Vancouver took the game 3-1.

The next night was a hitters battle, with Boise leading 7-3 going into the bottom of the ninth.  Jeremy Barfield hit a game-tying Grand Slam, but the Hawks pulled away in the 10th, scoring twice to win it, 9-7.  Boise doubled the Canadians in hits, 20-9.

On the hill, Mike Hart surrendered two runs, one earned, through four innings, while Matt Fitts gave up a pair of hits and walks while striking out five in his two innings.  Dan Thomas gave up two runs in the 7th and 8th, and Ben Hornbeck allowed three runs in the 9th.

Jose Guzman took the loss as the winning two runs scored in the 10th on his account.  Brad Hertzler pitched a perfect inning of relief, after Jose gave up the runs.

As I said, Barfield hit a grand slam in the 9th, his third home-run of the season, and Mitch LeVier was 2-5 with a double.  JD Pruitt picked up his first hit since being injured in July, he was 1-5 with two runs scored.  Dusty Coleman’s NWL debut wasn’t so hot, 0-5 with three strikeouts.

Sunday afternoon’s game featured a C’s comeback after leading the game through the 7th.  Boise scored three times in the 8th and 9th to tie the game, but a Dusty Coleman walk-off hit brought in the winning run.

Dave Thomas had a double, RBI and run, while Marcos Luis was 2-3 with a triple and an RBI.  Jeremy Barfield was 0-3 with a trio of strikeouts, but was the winning run after getting on base via a hit-by-pitch.  It extended his on-base streak to 24 games, which is what it ended up being, after failing to get on base Monday night.

Dusty Coleman had the wakoff knock, for his first hit in the NWL.

It was for sure a pitchers duel, with Boise’s Aaron Shafer one-hitting the C’s through 5 when his day was done, he struck out six.  Trey Barham was much of the same for Vancouver, 5 hits, six strikeouts, 6 innings.  Mathieu LeBlanc Poirier pitched a scoreless 7th, before Edgar Tejeda gave up two unearned runs in the 8th.  Ken Smalley took the Blown Save and the Win, as he surrendered a run.

Monday night was a good comeback, with all but two C’s starters pick up a hit.  JD Pruitt was 2-3 with a double and the winning run scored, and both Jason Christian and Dusty Coleman were 2-4, Coleman with a double as well.  Dusty Napoleon was 1-2 with a two-run home-run in the 6th.

Shawn Haviland was spectacular on the mound, 4 innings, 10 strikeouts.  Yes, all but two of his outs were K’s.  He gave up three runs, before Ben Hornbeck and Brad Hertzler each gave up one as well.  Jose Guzman picked up his 13th save of the year, and is now one back of Brad Kilby for the single-season record of 14 set in 2005.  Vancouver won 6-5 after a comeback.

Tuesday was a nightmare, with three Boise Hawks picking up four hits, and another pair each getting three.  All Boise batters had at least one hit, even the guy who had one at-bat.  For Vancouver, Rodney Rutherford was 4-5 with a double, 2 RBI and two runs scored.  Dave Thomas was much of the same, 3-5, 2 doubles and 4 RBI.  JD Pruitt was hit for the first time since being injured, and he was beaned twice, but seemed to be OK.

Starter Ronny Morla surrendered 7 runs in 3.2 innings, before Ryne Tacker, Fabian Gomez, Edgar Tejeda and Julio Rivera all gave up 9 more runs.  To Julio’s defence, only one run was earned and he hasn’t looked that bad on the hill in both of his outings.