EVERETT – Prevailing wisdom states that lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
Don’t tell that to the Vancouver Canadians.
For the second straight night, the Everett AquaSox broke a tie in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the AquaSox a 9-8 victory over the Canadians in Northwest League action Monday night.
Before the remnants of the Everett Memorial Stadium crowd of 1,514, Yung Chi Chen’s two-out, full-count single to right scored Brandon Green from second as the AquaSox again foiled a Vancouver comeback.
Everett (13-5), which scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a wild pitch in Sunday’s crazy 14-13 win, has won four straight and is 6-2 against the Canadians (6-12) this season.
“I don’t know,” Green said about why Everett seems to have Vancouver’s number. “It’s hard to tell. These games could go either way a lot of the time. Right now we’re just coming out with the victories.”
In the bottom of the ninth, Asdrubal Cabrera led off with a single. Green then tried to sacrifice Cabrera to second, but Vancouver pitcher Dan Barnett fielded the bunt and threw Cabrera out. After Brent Johnson flew out to right, Green stole second to get into scoring position. When Chen singled softly to right, Green raced home from second, sliding in ahead of a slightly off-line throw.
“Obviously I missed the sacrifice bunt, bunting it right back to the pitcher,” Green said. “I didn’t get the job done. So I was just trying to get a good pitch to go on (for the stolen base), and I guess I got a pretty good one and I was able to sneak in there. Then Chen came up with a really big hit.”
Green also slugged a three-run homer and Chen went 3-for-4. Reliever Aaron Trolia, who got the final out of the ninth, earned the win to improve to 1-0.
Everett starting pitcher Ivan Blanco had his best start of the season, though he still wasn’t in top form. Blanco, who came into the game with a 12.10 earned run average and had made it through just 9 2/3 innings in his first three starts, pitched well for four innings before running into control problems in the fifth. In five innings he gave up five runs on five walks and five hits, striking out five.
Daniel Putnam and Myron Leslie each homered for Vancouver. Barnett was saddled with the loss, falling to 0-2.
It looked like Trevor Heid’s RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning, which broke a 7-7 tie, would prove to be the difference.
Everett was then one strike away from victory in the top of the ninth. But with two out, Vancouver’s Ryan Ruiz laced 1-2 pitch from Mark Lowe off the left-field wall for a double, scoring Javier Herrera from third with the tying run.
The Canadians opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when with two out, Putnam smashed a rocket over the net in center field for a solo home run, giving Vancouver a 1-0 lead with his first professional homer.
But thanks to a little wildness by Vancouver starter Ryan Ford, Everett took the lead in the bottom of the second. Ford walked the first two batters of the inning, then after one out Mike Wilson grounded a single to right, scoring Marshall Hubbard. Wilson was subsequently picked off first, but during the rundown Chen sauntered home from third, giving the AquaSox a 2-1 lead.
Vancouver tied it back up in the fourth.
Putnam singled and Ruiz doubled, putting runners on second and third with nobody out, and Putnam scored on Everidge’s groundout to third, making it 2-2.
Everett regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Singles by Green and Chen put runners at the corners. Chen and Green then pulled off a double steal to give the AquaSox the lead, and Wilson later lined a double off the glove of diving center fielder Herrera to score Chen and make it 4-2.
But Vancouver struck back with three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 5-4 lead. Blanco gave up a single to Nick Blasi, then walked three straight batters to force in one run. Everidge then grounded to third and although one out was made at second, Chen threw the relay to first away, allowing two runs to come home.
However, Everett scored three of its own in the bottom of the frame, Green blasting a three-run homer to right-center to put the AquaSox up 7-5. The homer was Green’s third of the season.
Vancouver pulled back within one in the seventh, Ruiz’s groundout scoring Blasi from third to cut the lead to 7-6.
The Canadians then tied it up in the eighth on Leslie’s solo homer to center, his first of the season.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
