Kyle Cody guides Spokane Indians to series-finale win over Salem-Keizer

Some equate the pitching mound to a deserted island: a place where you labor all alone.

Pitcher Kyle Cody, who threw five quality innings in the Spokane Indians’ 7-1 win over Salem-Keizer on Saturday, wouldn’t agree with that association.

He knows he’s not alone. He feels the presence of his late brother, Tyler Cody, no matter where he goes.

Kyle and Tyler were involved in a fatal car accident on Highway 124 near their hometown of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. A dump truck collided with their babysitter’s pickup truck while turning on a side street.

Tyler, who was 4 years old, was killed in the crash. Kyle, who was 3, is left with a scar on his left cheek.

That scar is his only physical reminder of the crash, but the accident has had a greater effect.

“I feel like he’s with me all the time,” Cody said. “When I go out on the mound, I’m by myself. But I feel like he’s always with me.

“I feel like he’s going to live with me for my whole life.”

Cody doesn’t have any recollection of the crash, but it’s had a lasting impact on his life. Cody said his brother’s memory is one of his biggest motivators.

“I knew he was going to have an impact on me no matter what I did,” Cody said. “I was going to make sure whatever I did to the best of my abilities, and I was going to do for him.”

Around his sophomore year of high school, Cody realized baseball was his calling. He elected to play at Kentucky instead of signing with the Phillies, who drafted him in the 33rd round. He was taken again by the Twins in the second round of the 2015 draft, but the sides didn’t come to terms on a contract.

He finally signed with the Texas Rangers after being taken in the sixth round this season, and while he slipped from where he was taken the previous year, he doesn’t worry about it. He’s lucky to be alive, to say nothing about playing professional baseball.

“The way I look at it, I’m out here playing baseball and there are a lot worse things I could be doing,” Cody said. “I can’t look too far into a bad outing because I’m getting to play baseball with my life.”

Elio Castillo slugged a two-run home run in the second inning, supplying the Indians a 2-1 lead they didn’t relinquish.

The Indians added two runs in the third, one in the fourth and two in the fifth.

Cody gave up Salem-Keizer’s only run on a wild pitch in the second, something Indians manager Tim Hulett said wasn’t his fault

“I think (catcher) Clayton (Middleton) might take the blame for that one,” Hulett said. “He didn’t really get around that ball and block it.”

Cody doesn’t mind the blemish on his overall line. He’s happy to be out there on the mound, with his brother by his side.