Dust Devils lose pitchers’ duel to Canadians, still a game back in NWL North
Nick Margevicius and Blake Rogers combined to throw seven innings of four-hit, shutout ball, but the Vancouver Canadians scratched across a late run to top the Tri-City Dust Devils 1-0 on Friday night at Gesa Stadium in the opener of the final series of the regular season.
The win pulled the first-half NWL North champion Canadians (20-16 second half, 41-33 overall) into a tie with the Dust Devils (20-16, 40-34) for second place in the second-half standings, a game behind the Spokane Indians (21-15, 37-37), who lost to the Everett AquaSox (19-17, 36-38) on Friday. Because of head-to-head tiebreakers and the Canadians already having a postseason berth, Spokane needs to win the second half outright to keep Tri-City out of the playoffs.
Margevicius — the San Diego Padres seventh-round pick in this year’s MLB Draft — who dealt five scoreless innings in his second consecutive start, dropped his ERA to 1.24 in six tilts for the Dust Devils. But the Canadians were able to do damage against one of Tri-City’s most dynamic relievers, Evan Miller.
Miller (2-3, 1.33 ERA) came on in the eighth and, after getting a groundout to lead off the inning, surrendered three consecutive singles, including an RBI knock to Logan Warmoth, to give up the game’s only run, which was unearned.
Robbie Podorsky (25th round, McNeese St.) continued his stellar summer by going 2-for-4 to raise his batting average to a team-high .303.
The middle game of the three-game set was Saturday, with the season finale starting at 7:15 p.m. Sunday.
Canadians 1, Dust Devils 0
Vancouver | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg |
Pruitt cf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .232 |
Obeso lf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .251 |
Warmoth ss | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .316 |
Adams dh | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .312 |
Clemens 1b | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .279 |
Taylor 2b | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .323 |
Romanin 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .206 |
Morgan c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .141 |
Polizzi rf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .196 |
Totals | 32 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
Dust Devils | AB | R | H | BI | BB | SO | Avg |
Podorsky lf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .303 |
J.Lopez ss | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .244 |
Melean 2b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .228 |
Asuncion rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .272 |
Carter cf | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .236 |
Almanzar 3b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .233 |
Mattison 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .231 |
-47-Magee pr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .213 |
Washington c | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .182 |
Benson dh | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .288 |
Totals | 32 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 11 |
Vancouver | 000 | 000 | 010 | – | 1 | 8 | 0 |
Dust Devils | 000 | 000 | 000 | – | 0 | 7 | 1 |
-47-Ran for Mattison in the 9th.
E–Almanzar (23). LOB–Vancouver 8; Dust Devils 9. 2B–Clemens (14). RBIs–Warmoth (18). SB–Almanzar (10) 2B. CS–Taylor (2) 2B. S–Taylor. RISP–Vancouver 1-for-5; Dust Devils 1-for-5. Runners left in scoring position–Warmoth; Polizzi; Benson 2; Carter. GIDP–Adams; Melean; Asuncion. DP–Vancouver 2; Dust Devils 1.
Vancouver | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
Rodning | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4.64 |
D.Jimenez W,2-3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5.30 |
Reyes H,2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.80 |
Ouellette S,13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3.00 |
Dust Devils | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
Margevicius | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 1.24 |
Rogers | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.00 |
Miller L,2-3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.33 |
GS–Rodning 60; Margevicius 72. HBP–Romanin (Rogers); Asuncion (D.Jimenez). Pitches-strikes–Rodning 73-48; D.Jimenez 22-15; Reyes 13-9; Ouellette 19-12; Margevicius 79-56; Rogers 21-11; Miller 31-23.
T–2:39. A–2,684.
Dustin Brennan: 509-582-1413, @Tweet_By_Dustin
This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Dust Devils lose pitchers’ duel to Canadians, still a game back in NWL North."