Indians lose to Vancouver in opener

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Justin Nicolino allowed just one hit in five shutout innings and Garrett Maines delivered a two-run single with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning to propel the Vancouver Canadians to a 3-1 victory over the Spokane Indians to open a five-game Northwest League series Tuesday night. The Canadians (2-5) jumped all over Indians reliever Andres Perez-Lobo in their eighth-inning rally after the Indians (3-4) had knotted the score at 1 in the top half of the inning. Perez-Lobo (1-2) walked the first two batters he faced and then threw a wild pitch to put runners at second and third for Maines, who singled to center. Spokane scored its lone run earlier in the inning when Drew Robinson and Hanser Alberto hit back-to-back one-out singles. Robinson scored on a force-out grounder by Hirotoshi Onaka. Spokane starter Nicholas McBride was stellar on the mound. The right-hander allowed three hits and one run in seven innings. He struck out four and didn’t issue a walk. Philip Brua picked up the win and improved to 4-0 with two innings of relief for the Canadians.