Dust Devils baseball 2022 season home opener is in Pasco this week

It’s still hard to believe that the Tri-City Dust Devils have already opened their 2022 Northwest League season.

After all, for decades, the team had played in the short-season Northwest League that always began play in mid-June and ended Labor Day Weekend — usually with a 76-game schedule.

But after Major League Baseball pared back the number of minor-league affiliates in 2020, eliminated short-season baseball, and then didn’t have minor-league ball at all in 2020 thanks to the pandemic, the Dust Devils emerged in 2021 as a Los Angeles Angels affiliate after having a previous relationship with the San Diego Padres.

Last year, the team agreed to a 10-year deal to work with the Angels, became a High-A West squad with a season that began late in May (to keep major leaguers and minor leaguers away from each other in spring training because of COVID), and went 43-68 for 111 games.

That was still down from a scheduled 120 games because the Dust Devils had a team outbreak of COVID late in the season that caused some games to be canceled.

Now, we’re back on track with a full 132-game season for 2022.

MLB decided to allow the minors to go back to the original league names. Last year, Tri-City’s league was called the High-A West. This season, it’s again the Northwest League.

The Dust Devils hold the season home opener on Tuesday night at Gesa Stadium in Pasco, where they host the Vancouver Canadians at 6:30 p.m.

The team opened the season on Friday in Hillsboro for the start of a three-game series against the Hops. And Tri-City went 3-0, as new team manager Jack Howell led his squad to a season-opening road sweep.

Dust Devils highlights

• In a 5-4 win on Friday night, reliever Emilker Guzman was the star by pitching 2 shutout innings to close the game and earn the save. Guzman spent last season with the Angels’ low-A club in Inland Empire in California.

Second baseman Osmy Gregorio — who was with the Tampa Bay Rays’ affiliate last year at Bowling Green — had a double and two RBIs.

Outfielder Steven Rivas, who spent some time with the Dust Devils in 2021, added two doubles.

• In Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Hops, the Dust Devils exploded for 5 runs in the eighth inning.

There were a lot of Tri-City standouts in this one, starting with reliever Nick Jones, who fanned three batters in 1.1 innings. Jones spent time in the Arizona League and at Inland Empire last year.

• Outfielder Mike Peabody played just two games last season for the Dust Devils, and on Saturday he had a hit, scored twice and stole two bases.

Other standouts included outfielder Jordyn Adams, a top Angels prospect who played with Tri-City last season and had a hit, a run and an RBI; Rivas again with 2 RBIs; and starting pitcher Jake Smith, who went 3 innings, struck out three batters, and gave up no earned runs.

Smith was signed by the Angels in 2021, and he got in three starts for the Dust Devils last year.

• On Sunday, Tri-City used four pitchers to shut out Hillsboro 3-0.

Starter Adam Seminaris was the star, striking out 6 batters over 4.2 innings, and giving up just two hits.

Robinson Pina, Dylan King and Nathan Burns followed Seminaris to combine on the shutout.

All four pitchers spent time with the Dust Devils in 2021.

Kyle Kasser (another Dust Devils player in 2021) and Adams each had two hits, while Rivas added a home run.

So fans can see there are some familiar faces at Gesa Stadium when the homestand begins Tuesday.

Schedule and notes

• Here is the rest of the team’s schedule (home games are in caps):

APRIL: 12-16 — VANCOUVER, 6:30 p.m.; 17 — VANCOUVER, 1:30 p.m.; 19-24 — at Everett; 26-30 — EUGENE, 6:30 p.m.

MAY: 1 — EUGENE, 1:30 p.m.; 3-8 — at Spokane; 10-14 — EVERETT, 6:30 p.m.; 15 — EVERETT, 1:30 p.m.; 17-22 — at Vancouver; 24-29 — at Eugene; 31 — HILLSBORO, 6:30 p.m.

JUNE: 1-5 — HILLSBORO, 6:30 p.m.; 7-12 — VANCOUVER, 6:30 p.m.; 14-19 — at Everett; 21-26 — at Eugene; 28-30 — HILLSBORO, 7:05 p.m.

JULY: 1-3 — HILLSBORO, 7:05 p.m.; 4-10 — at Spokane; 12-17 — EVERETT, 7:05 p.m.; 22-24 — at Hillsboro; 26-31 — SPOKANE, 7:05 p.m.

AUGUST: 2-7 — at Vancouver; 9-14 — EVERETT, 7:05 p.m.; 16-21 — at Spokane; 23-28 — EUGENE, 7:05 p.m.; 30-31 — at Hillsboro.

SEPTEMBER: 1-4 — at Hillsboro; 6-11 — SPOKANE, 6:30 p.m.

• For the second consecutive season, the league involves just six teams. Almost all series involve six games, played Tuesday through Sunday, with a day off on Monday.

Dust Devils home game starts in April, May, early June and in September are at 6:30 p.m. There are also a few 1:30 p.m. starts on some early season Sunday home games.

In late June, all of July and August, home game starts are 7:05 p.m. There are also 11 home games that will have post-game fireworks this season.

Tri-City Americans this week

The Tri-City Americans won’t make the playoffs this year, but they still have three home games on their schedule this week to end the regular season.

The Ams, who are last place in the Western Conference with an 18-42-5-0 record for 41 points, play host to Portland at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday.

Then the team has Seattle visit at 7:05 p.m., Friday; followed by Everett coming to town at 6:05 p.m. on Saturday.

Still, there is hope in the future for this squad. It was pretty neat to see one of the team’s youngsters, Jordan Gavin, score his first WHL goal on April 1 after being called up by the Americans, playing in a 6-4 loss on the road against the Seattle Thunderbirds.

He became the youngest Tri-City American in team history to score a WHL goal at the age of 15 years, 4 months, and 19 days.

And there should be more from where those came from.

Gavin helped the Delta Hockey Academy U17 Prep team beat St. George’s U17 Prep 9-3 recently to win the school’s first-ever Canadian Sport School Hockey League Western Championship.

But looking at his numbers, it’s almost as if they come from a video game.

In 33 games this season (including playoffs), Gavin scored 59 goals, 76 assists, for 135 points.

Can’t wait to see what he and the speedy Dwayne Jean, Jr., can do over the next few seasons.