Ramirez leads Dust Devils to 8-6 win over Canadians

With just five more games left in the regular season, the Tri-City Dust Devils are looking to build momentum heading into their first Northwest League playoff series in four seasons.

The Dust Devils (15-18) got a good start Tuesday night, securing an 8-6 win over the Vancouver Canadians (15-17) at Gesa Stadium. The series will continue at 7:15 p.m. today.

Tri-City starter Emmanuel Ramirez picked up his first NWL win, giving up just one run over five innings to improve to 1-1.

The Dust Devils took control early, scoring four runs off Vancouver starter Evan Smith, who lasted just two-thirds of an inning. Tri-City got RBI singles from Jose Carlos Urena, Carlos Belen and Austin Allen, then a run-scoring sacrifice fly from Henry Charles to make it 4-0.

Smith (2-4), a fourth-round draft pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013, took the loss.

Canadians pitchers surrendered nine walks on the night, giving Tri-City plenty of chances to put runs across.

Justin Steele allowed just one hit over four innings to lift Eugene (20-13) to a 5-4 road win over Salem-Keizer (16-17). ... Spokane (14-19) scored six runs over the final four innings to erase a five-run deficit in a 7-6 win over Everett (19-14) in 10 innings. The AquaSox’s magic number, including a tiebreaker over Vancouver, is two games. ... Hillsboro (19-14) kept pace with the Ems in the South with a 9-5 win at Boise (14-19).

Tri-City: Ty France is eighth in the NWL in batting (.284), third in walks (39), second in on-base percentage (.417) and tied for first with 12 hit-by-pitches. ... Urena is fourth in RBIs (43), fourth in on-base percentage (.388) and second in walks. ... Rod Boykin is second in the NWL in runs scored (45). ... Belen remains one strikeout away from setting a NWL short-season record for strikeouts. He leads the league with 105, which ties him for the single-season record with Lee Tinsley of Southern Oregon, set in 1988. Vancouver: Andrew Case leads the NWL with 10 saves.

LHP Will Headean and RHP Trey Wingenter were both added to the Dust Devils roster from the Arizona League Padres on Sunday.

Tri-City pitcher Angel Mejia tossed every inning of the Dust Devils’ rain-shortened 9-3 win over the Everett AquaSox on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, earning his fifth victory. It was the first complete game credited to a Tri-City pitcher since Christian Bergman did it Aug. 19, 2011, in a 2-0 home win over Yakima.

NWL Divisional playoff tickets are now available at the Tri-City Dust Devils ticket office. The Dust Devils will host Game 2 on Tuesday, Sept. 8 and (if necessary) Game 3 on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Stop by Gesa Stadium, call 544-8789 or visit www.dustdevilsbaseball.com.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 11:04 PM with the headline "Ramirez leads Dust Devils to 8-6 win over Canadians."