Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009

Dust Devils return home

HERALD STAFF

The Tri-City Dust Devils are inching ever closer to their second Northwest League East Division title.

And if they are going to win their second crown in three seasons, they will likely do it at home.

The Dust Devils, who return home tonight to take on second-place Spokane, are coming off a 5-3 road trip after losing the series finale to Vancouver on Tuesday afternoon.

Tri-City (34-24) has a seven-game lead over Spokane (27-31) and Boise (27-31) with 18 games left in the regular season.

The schedule sets up nicely for the Dust Devils, who play 12 of their next 15 games at Gesa Stadium.

Tri-City is 5-1 against the Indians this year, and swept Spokane the only other series in Pasco this season.

After this three game series, the Dust Devils play six straight games against last-place Yakima (22-36).

Tri-City, which pounded out 18 runs in wins over Vancouver on Sunday and Monday, was held to just one run on four hits Tuesday in a 2-1 loss.

All three of the game's runs came in the second inning.

Tri-City took a 1-0 lead on Jose Gonzalez' groundout.

Vancouver came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning, thanks in part to two Tri-City errors.