Dust Devils trip up Indians, 3-2

PASCO — The Tri-City Dust Devils kept the Spokane Indians reeling in Northwest League baseball action on Monday.

No. 9 hitter Mitsuru Sakamoto delivered a two-run single in the second inning off highly-touted Spokane starter Thomas Diamond and the Dust Devils dealt the Indians a 3-2 defeat, extending Spokane’s losing streak to three.

The loss drops the Indians below .500 at 15-16 and three games behind first-place Tri-City (18-13) in the standings.

Diamond (0-2) breezed through the first inning before running into trouble.

The right-hander struck out Florentino Nunez to open the second, then gave up a single to Stephen Ghutzman. After retiring Rick Guarno on a called third strike, Diamond gave up two-out singles to Joseph Koshansky and No. 8 hitter Pedro Strop, setting the stage for Sakamoto.

Diamond’s day was done after the third inning. He allowed five hits and two walks, while striking out three.

Spokane cut the lead in half with a run in the top of the third inning.

Ryan Baldwin singled up the middle with one out. With two outs, Brandon Boggs doubled down the right field line to score Baldwin.

The Dust Devils stretched their lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth on a one-out solo home run by Matt Macri off reliever Shawn Phillips.

It was the only blemish for Phillips in his four innings of work. He allowed just one other hit, a harmless single by Sakamoto in the seventh, while striking out three.

Spokane’s final run came in the top of the seventh inning.

Billy Susdorf singled to left with one out and stole second. He stole third after a walk to Tobin Swope and scored on a Jim Fasano single through the right side of the infield.

Spokane will try to salvage the final game of the three-game series tonight with Mark Roberts getting the start.