Dust Devil bats go silent in 6-1 loss to Indians

For a while it seemed like the Tri-City Dust Devils series finale Wednesday against the host Spokane Indians was going to be a pitchers’ duel.

With highly-touted starting pitchers Adrian Morejon (No. 3 prospect in the San Diego Padres organization, according to MLB Pipeline) and Cole Ragans (No. 9 in Texas Rangers org) going at it, the Indians led just 2-0 after five, and neither offense looked comfortable.

But a four-run bottom of the sixth, capped by a Curtis Terry single that plated three runs because of a throwing error, was plenty to get the Indians clear of the Dust Devils for a 6-1 victory, their first in six tries against Tri-City this season.

Despite the loss, Tri-City remained on top of the Northwest League’s North Division with the Vancouver Canadians suffering a loss at the hands of the Everett AquaSox, 7-5. The Dust Devils begin a five-game home stand at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, facing a Salem-Keizer Volcanoes team they took four-of-five from on the road to open the season.

Tri-City managed just four hits in this one, with Luis Asuncion providing the only encouraging line — 2-for-4 with a double — to bump his batting average up to .327 for the season.

Morejon’s third pro start was arguably his best as he only really made one mistake — which resulted in a two-out, two-run homer to the power alley in left for Kole Enright in the fourth — as he gave up just four hits and struck out five while walking none, but still got stuck with his first loss. Spokane did the rest of its damage against Andres Munoz, who got just two outs in the sixth and gave up four runs (one earned) on two hits before getting yanked.

Ragans fired four no-hit innings for Spokane, but walked five against six strikeouts. Tri-City was able to hang a run on reliever Reiver Sanmartin (2-0) — a Jalen Washington double allowing Chris Mattison to score on a groundout by Felipe Blanco in the sixth — but the 21-year-old lefty out of Colombia still picked up the win.

E–F.Blanco 3 (3). LOB–Dust Devils 8; Spokane 4. 2B–Asuncion (4). HR–Enright (1) off Morejon. RBIs–F.Blanco (2); Enright 2 (2); Terry (4). SB–Magee (3) 2B; Pozo (1) 2B. RISP–Dust Devils 0-for-9; Spokane 2-for-7. Runners left in scoring position–Burgos 2; Asuncion; Almanzar; Anguizola; Leblanc 2; Aparicio. GIDP–Washington. DP–Spokane 1.

B–Morejon. GS–Morejon 55; Ragans 60. HBP–Aparicio (Morejon). Pitches-strikes–Morejon 86-64; Munoz 29-15; Schlichtholz 10-5; Guerrero 9-6; Ragans 76-38; Rogers 16-7; Sanmartin 43-30. WP–Morejon; Munoz; Ragans. Inherited runners-scored–Schlichtholz 1-0.

T–2:47. A–5,272.

This story was originally published June 28, 2017 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Dust Devil bats go silent in 6-1 loss to Indians."