Mattison’s late homer lifts Dust Devils
Chris Mattison hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to complete the comeback Thursday night, and Diomar Lopez and Jose Castillo threw four innings of one-hit relief to lead the Dust Devils to a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canadians and finish off a three-game series sweep at home.
Tri-City’s victory keeps them even with the Everett AquaSox at the top of the NWL North division at 9-5, and the Dust Devils are now on a four-game win streak and have beaten the Canadians 13 out of the last 16 times the teams have met.
Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth, the Dust Devils teed off on fresh Vancouver (7-7) pitcher Jackson McClelland. Josh Magee led it off with a single to right, followed by a double to left by Chris Baker. Magee then scored on a wild pitch by McClelland to make it 3-2, and that was when Mattison lifted a ball high into the night air at Gesa Stadium that sailed over the left field wall and put Tri-City up for good.
The home run was Mattison’s first in his nine games as a professional and was just the second the Dust Devils have hit this season. Mattison also drove in the tying run against Vancouver on Tuesday with a double and scored the eventual winning run later that inning.
After taking a 1-0 lead in their first at-bat, things got a bit dicey for the Dust Devils and starting pitcher Jordan Guerrero in the third. Aided by a couple of errors by Tri-City infielders and a walk by Guerrero, the Canadians managed to push three runs across the plate with nothing more than a few seeing-eye grounders and some aggressive baserunning to take a 3-1 lead.
Guerrero didn’t allow a hit outside of the third in his five innings of work and only allowed two more runners to reach base via the walk. Diomar Lopez (2-0) and Jose Castillo backed up Guerrero’s gritty performance by combining to allow just one hit in their four innings of shutout relief to pick up the win and the save, respectively.
Among the black marks for the Dust Devils were their three fielding errors and Luis Asuncion failing to extend his league-leading 11-game hitting streak with an 0-for-3 performance. Despite not getting a hit, Asuncion drew a walk in the bottom of the first with the bases loaded to drive in the game’s first run.
The Dust Devils open a three-game series with the Everett AquaSox beginning at 7:15 p.m. Friday, the winner of which will have at least a one-game lead on the division heading into next week.
The AquaSox have not announced their probable starting pitchers for the series, but Tri-City likely will go with Braxton Lorenzini (0-1, 9.55 ERA) on Friday, Emmanuel Ramirez (1-0, 1.20) on Saturday and Angel Mejia (1-0, 2.45) on Sunday.
This is the final regular season series the Dust Devils and AquaSox will play at Gesa Stadium, with the remaining six games of the season series to be played in Everett.
Dust Devils 4, Candians 3
Vancouver ab | r | h | bi | Tri-City ab | r | h | bi | ||
C.Biggio 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Easley 2b | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Barreto ss | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Magee cf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
C.Willms 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Baker ss | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
J.Andrson rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | M.Smith dh | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Woodman cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mattison c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Romnin ph | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Asuncion rf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
G.Clark dh | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Burgos cf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
- L.Jones ph | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | C.Sosa 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
J.Hrnendez c | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Savinon 3b | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Orozco lf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | B.White 3b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Totals 30 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Totals 30 | 4 | 6 | 3 | ||
Vancouver | 003 | 000 | 100 | — | 3 |
Tri-City | 100 | 000 | 03x | — | 10 |
E—Biggio (4), Romanin (1), Savinon (4), Sosa (2). DP—Vancouver 1. LOB—Tri-City 6, Vancouver 6. 2B—Baker (2). HR—Mattison (1). SAC—Jones. SB—L.Jones (3), Easley (2). CS—Savinon (1).
Vancouver | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
P.Murphy | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Glaude H, 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
McClelland BS, 1 L, 0-1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
Tri-City | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
J.Guerrero | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
D.Lopez W, 2-0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Castillo S, 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
WP—Murphy, Mclelland. HBP—By Castillo (Romanin), by Murphy (Magee). Umpires—H, Zachary Dodson; F, Codey Davis . T—2:35. A—2,068.
Dustin Brennan: 509-582-1413, @Tweet_By_Dustin
This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Mattison’s late homer lifts Dust Devils."