Jul. 3—Michael Toglia went 2 for 3 with two RBIs, Chris McMahon pitched five strong innings and the Spokane Indians edged the Tri-City Dust Devils 4-3 in the fourth of a six-game High-A West series at Avista Stadium on Friday.
[BOX SCORE courtesy MILB.com]
McMahon allowed two runs on six hits and two walks with nine strikeouts to earn his league-leading fifth win.
“I think every starting pitcher wants to be in line for the win and get that win,” McMahon said. “Obviously just need some help from the bats, which we got tonight. We got it done enough. So yeah, it feels good.”
He threw 61 of his 96 pitches for strikes. McMahon has pitched at least five innings in 10 of his 11 starts this season.
“You know, he used a lot of pitches,” Indians manager Scott Little said. “He pitched five innings and left with only giving up two runs, so you got to say it’s quality start. I think if you ask him, he would have probably wished he’d had been more efficient. But he did fine. He did good.”
“I felt great, I feel good,” McMahon said. “Not as efficient tonight as past starts but you know what, I can’t complain. Nine strikeouts, I think that’s a high for me, I think. Changeup and slider were working tonight, which is a good feeling.”
Fellow starter Nick Bush, who missed his regular turn in the rotation on Tuesday due to illness, went four scoreless for the save.
“The guy loses 10 pounds or whatever a couple of days ago and, you know, comes out here tonight and finishes the game up for us and kind of saves the bullpen,” Little said of Bush. “We’ve been a little short down there so, you know, I feel awful confident when he’s out there on the mound.”
Tri-City starter Hector Yan, who was named to the MLB Futures Game earlier in the week, gave up four runs — three earned — on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts over five innings.
The Indians jumped on Yan right away. Leadoff hitter Jack Blomgren laced a single to left, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch, then Carlos Herrera couldn’t handle a hard-hit grounder to third by Niko Decolati and Blomgren trotted home with the first run of the game for the Indians (24-28).
Decolati advanced on a wild pitch and with one down, Michael Toglia, who will join Yan at the Futures Game, lined one through the box to drive him in.
“It’s always nice giving (the starter) run support, gives them a little breathing room and hopefully they can settle down early and use that their advantage,” Toglia said.
McMahon cruised until the fifth. With one down, Brendon Davis singled off the glove of Blomgren at second, then Herrera smacked his third home run of the season to tie it up. McMahon came back to pick up his ninth strikeout on his 96th pitch.
It was a season-high number of pitches for the 22-year-old in his first season of pro ball.
“The body was a little tired, but I mean, still gotta be able to get ahead and pitch to those guys,” McMahon said. “Not an excuse.”
The Indians took the lead back in the bottom half. Luke Morgan led off with a double, went to third on a fly out and scored on a sacrifice fly by Christopher Navarro. They loaded the bases with two down on an error, walk and infield single and Toglia’s tapper that went about 25 feet up the third base line was enough to push another run across.
“I got every piece of it,” Toglia joked.
“Honestly, I was just looking for any pitch to get the job done,” he said. “I was getting off-speed all day. I was trying to stay on a fastball and threw me a change down and away. I got enough of it to put it in fair territory but not enough for it to be an out, so it got the job done.”
The Dust Devils (17-34) pulled off a triple play in the sixth inning. With two on Morgan lined to Kyle Kasser at first but the base runners had taken off on the 2-2 pitch. Kasser went to second for the easy force and the return throw was caught by second baseman Adrian Rondon covering at first to nab Kyle Datres, who had reached second before back-tracking.
“I knew I was dead in my shoes,” Datres said. “I didn’t know what to do. I started going back to first, I knew the throw was going to become behind me so I was trying to get in the way of the throw and maybe have it hit me in the back.”
Davis crushed his 10th homer, a solo shot, in the seventh to make it a one-run game, but it stayed that way.
Around the league
Hillsboro 4, Eugene 2: Jorge Barrosa went 2 for 3 with a tie-breaking RBI double in the fifth and the Hops (20-30) topped the visiting Emeralds (33-18). Sean Roby had a two-run double for Eugene.
Vancouver 10, Everett 5: Rafael Lantigua and Tanner Morris homered and the visiting Canadians (27-25) beat the AquaSox (32-18). Lantigua and Morris had three hits apiece. Patrick Frick went 3 for 4 with an RBI for Everett.