2015 Vancouver Canadians Home Opener
Saturday, June 27 2015 @ 06:02 AM EDT
Contributed by: #2JBrumfield
The Vancouver Canadians won a home opener for the first time since 2011 as they beat the defending Northwest League champion Hillsboro Hops, an affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Four years ago, the C's beat the Yakima Bears in their first game as a Blue Jays affiliate. Yakima relocated to Hillsboro in 2013.
Blue Jays 2015 first round pick Jon Harris throws his first strike on his second pitch of the game at 93 miles per hour.
Jon Harris strikes out Hops leadoff hitter Fernery Ozuna on a 80 MPH pitch for his first professional strikeout.
Jon Harris fires a pitch towards home plate in the second inning.
Juan Kelly gets Vancouver's first hit of the game with a leadoff single in the second inning.
Jon Harris throws a breaking ball at 79 MPH in the third inning.
Jon Harris was pulled after 2-2/3 innings of shutout ball with a hit and a 4-1 K/BB total for Jonathan Wandling, who got the victory despite giving up three runs over 3-1/3 innings. Wandling was only charged with one earned run after errors by Lane Thomas at second and J.C. Cardenas at short. Vancouver had four clanks in this one.
Earl Burl III manufactured the first run of the game with a double, a steal of third and a wild pitch in the third inning. He also had an RBI triple and tagged up to score here on a Lane Thomas sacrifice fly in the fifth to snap a 2-2 tie.
Michael Kraft was able to work around two leadoff hits in his two shutout innings of work. He got some help from Earl Burl III as he made a diving catch near the warning track in center field in the eighth to keep the potential tying run from scoring.
Sean Hurley was the first batter to take advantage of the shorter wall and moved-in fence in left field as he deposited a ball into The Porch. It's now 320 feet down the left field line. Hurley's solo poke in the eighth made it a 5-3 game.
Andrew Case survived a walk and a single and stranded runners at second and third to get his second save of the season. Canadians win it 5-3.
Jon Harris was able to overcome a dropped ball by Earl Burl III in the first inning and he stranded a hit and a walk in the second inning. In total, he pitched 2-2/3 innings of scoreless ball and struck out four while splitting his outs in play with two on the ground and two in the air. He hit 93 miles per hour with his fastball and was around 79-80 MPH on the low end. He also threw offerings of 84, 87, 91 and 92. He was replaced by Jon Wandling. For what it's worth, some speculation at the park was if Harris does well here in his stint in Vancouver, he may go up to Double-A New Hampshire in short order. Wandling's pitches were around 82-90 MPH and Michael Kraft had a range of 69-89. Andrew Case did touch 93 with one pitch.
The C's were victimized by a double steal of home and second in the fifth inning that allowed Hillsboro to tie the game at 2-2. With runners on the corners, Canadians catcher Kevin Garcia threw down to second base and then could not hang on to the ball on the return throw. The Hops tried to pull the same trick in the sixth but Garcia managed to start a rundown between third and home and tagged out the runner on a 2-5-2 putout.
Garcia was also involved in a controversial play on the basepaths in the third inning when he was at third base and Austin Davis was at first in the fourth inning. Davis had singled home Sean Hurley to make it 2-0 Vancouver but he was picked off at first base. Davis tried to stay in a rundown and it appeared he did so long enough to allow Garcia to score before he was tagged out. The umpire did not agree and though manager John Schneider came out to argue, Garcia was not credited with a run scored. Garcia had reached base by taking a pitch in the back.
Tonight's game marked the return of pitching coach Jim Czajkowski to Vancouver after he was in New Hampshire last season. Jeff Ware handled the C's pitching staff in 2014.
Juan Kelly hammered a 63 MPH piece of slop from Hillsboro starter Carlos Hernandez for Vancouver's first hit.
Earl Burl III made things happen with a double, a triple, a stolen base and a diving catch. I think he's the earl-y favourite to win the Fan's Choice Award at the end of the year.
Until Sean Hurley's blast, no one came close to taking advantage of the smaller left field dimensions. Kelly, Burl and Hurley all had two hits apiece while J.C. Cardenas had a hit and a walk. Christian Vazquez was 0-for-4 but he made a nice play defensively at third to handle a sharp ground ball for the first out of the ninth inning. Rolando Segovia also had a hit.
The attendance was 6,013 with the additional seats down the third base/left field side and The Porch behind left field. The C's bullpen is just behind the left field fence but the visitors pen remains in foul territory down the right field side.
Unfortunately for C's fans, there was no championship banner unveiling last night after celebrating that ritual at the home opener for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 after three-peating as Northwest League champions in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Hopefully, that will be rectified for 2016!
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