YAKIMA -- On a night when Tri-City Dust Devils manager Fred Ocasio was named the Northwest League's manager of the year, his team inched closer to the East Division title.
Tri-City won its sixth straight game Thursday night, beating last-place Yakima 8-1 at County Stadium to reduce its magic number to win the division title to four.
"I like the way we're playing, especially over the last week," Ocasio said. "We're performing well in all three phases of the game -- pitching, defense and hitting."
Ocasio has led the Dust Devils to a 40-26 record following Thursday's win, and he has amassed a 151-143 managerial record since taking the team's reins in 2006.
Ocasio acted as Tri-City's hitting coach from 2001-2005.
Dust Devils relief pitchers Charles Ruiz and Craig Bennigson also were selected to the NWL's All-Star team.
Ruiz, a right-hander leads the NWL with 16 saves and 29 appearances and has an ERA of 1.26. Bennigson, a lefty, leads the league with eight wins and has an ERA of 1.69.
Yakima's Houston Summers, in his first start of the season, yielded 10 hits and six runs -- all earned -- over four innings.
The Dust Devils reached the knuckleballer for a first-inning run on three hits, then batted around to score five times in the second.
Run-scoring singles by Jeremiah Sammy and Kevin Clark preceded a two-run double by Bo Bowman to key the uprising, which was capped by Kent Matthes' RBI two-bagger.
"We saw him (Summers) so much in spring training, in extended, it was like we hit against him every other day," Ocasio said. "So I just reminded the guys to stay back and drive the ball, and they did."
Though Summers held Tri-City scoreless through the third and fourth innings.
Ben Dollar allowed a one-out single to Alex Feinberg in the fifth and then a ringing, two-out homer to right by Tim Wheeler to finish the scoring.
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On paper, Dust Devils have NWL title wrapped up
On paper, Dust Devils have NWL title wrapped up
PASCO -- If you look at the Northwest League website, you'll see that the Tri-City Dust Devils have vastly superior numbers to the Vancouver Canadians.
The Dust Devils swept the first half and second half East Division titles, and then went on to sweep Boise in the best-of-3 NWL divisional playoffs.
The Canadians didn't win either half in the West and backed into the playoffs after losing five of their last six regular season games.
Defense huge in Dust Devils' 2-1 win over Indians
Defense huge in Dust Devils' 2-1 win over Indians
The Northwest League All-Star team is due out this week, and the playoff-bound Tri-City Dust Devils should earn a few spots on the team. One thing the NWL doesn’t have is a defensive award. If it did, the Dust Devils certainly would grab another healthy handful of honors.
Dust Devils fall in title bid
Dust Devils fall in title bid
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- This was not the way the Tri-City Dust Devils wanted to go out.
Tri-City players could only watch as the Vancouver Canadians celebrated their first-ever Northwest League title Sunday afternoon at Nat Bailey Stadium after a gut-punch of a 9-2 loss in Game 3 of the NWL championship series.
The Dust Devils locker room was dead silent after the loss. They built some momentum after a 5-3 win yesterday to keep their title hopes alive.
Tri-City drops road game 7-5
Tri-City drops road game 7-5
VANCOUVER -- The Tri-City Dust Devils scored four runs in the top of the third to take a 4-1 lead but ended up giving it right back the next inning in a Northwest League loss to the Vancouver Canadians at Nat Bailey Stadium.
Tim Smalling went 3-for-4 with two runs and hit his NWL-leading seventh triple of the year to tie the score at one. Tyler Massey, Jared Simon and Leonardo Reyes each added RBI singles to cap the scoring in the third.
The Dust Devils (17-13
second half) remained in first place in the East Division, but Yakima (15-15) pulled to within two games with a 6-0 win at Everett. Tri-City already clinched a NWL playoff berth by winning the first-half title.
Plenty to cheer after Dust Devils' fine year
Plenty to cheer after Dust Devils' fine year
The Tri-City Dust Devils will feel the sting for a while.
To come within one game of a Northwest League title only to fall short on the final day of the season, it leaves a hole.
"It's quiet (in the locker room), but there's nothing we can do. It's over with," Dust Devils pitcher Tyler Gagnon said after he took the loss in Game 3 of the NWL championship series Sunday in Vancouver. "We have to learn from it and move on."
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