Herald staff
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Anjul Hernandez went five shutout innings, and the Everett Aquasox broke out for four runs in the top of the seventh to knock off the Vancouver Canadians 4-2 on Monday night.
After Candians starter Jose Espada cruised through the first six innings — allowing just two hits, one walk and striking out six on 81 pitches — the Sox finally got something going, taking advantage of multiple mistakes by Vancouver reliever Grayson Huffman.
Eugene Helder led off with a single and Troy Dixon followed by reaching on a fielding error by Huffman on a sacrafice bunt attempt, advancing Helder to third. Onil Pena then singled Helder home.
Then Huffman committed another error on a Joe Venturino sacrifice attempt, allowing Dixon to score and Venturino and Pena to advance to second and third.
Two batters later Huffman uncorked a wild pitch to allow another run in, and Chris Torres added a two-out single to push across one more.
In his second start since returning to Everett’s starting rotation, Hernandez escaped a few jams to deliver another quality performance, fanning six while stranding eight runners on base.
Hernandez escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second and another tough situation in the fourth with runners on second and third and one out with back-to-back strikeouts.
Hernandez has lowered his ERA from 9.64 to 6.28 with 10 scoreless innings in his last two starts.
Vancouver (15-11 second half, 36-28 overall) looked to rally with runners on first and second with no outs in the eighth inning but could only get one run across on a two-out RBI single by Bryan Lizardo.
The Canadians put Everett (13-13, 30-34) in another tough situation in the ninth, getting runners to first and third with two outs after Kacy Clemens doubled in a run off Scott Kuzminsky to make it 4-2.
Matt Clancy came in to retire the last batter and record his fifth save of the season.
Ted Hammond, graduate of Shorecrest High School and Seattle University, picked up his first win as an AquaSox in two innings of relief.
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