Indians hold off Dust Devils after five-run fifth inning

PASCO – It’s not every day that a baseball team clears the bases on a sacrifice fly.

But the Spokane Indians pulled the trick Tuesday – with help from the Tri-City Dust Devils – during a 6-5 victory to open a three-game Northwest League series at Gesa Stadium.

The Indians trailed 4-1 entering the top of the fifth inning but cut the deficit to 4-3 on back-to-back RBI singles by Darius Day and Charles LeBlanc.

With the bases loaded, Seth Spivey sent a sacrifice fly to center fielder Buddy Reed to score Leody Taveras for a tie game. Reed’s throwing error on the play scored Day and pitcher Diomar Lopez added a throwing error to score LeBlanc.

The Indians carried a 6-4 lead into the ninth and held on despite Chris Baker’s two-out RBI single.

Spokane, the NWL North Division’s first-half champion, improved to 7-5 in the second half, one game behind Everett. The Dust Devils are 4-8.

Mark Vasquez, the second Indians pitcher, improved to 4-0. Vasquez allowed four hits and no earned runs in 3 1/3 innings, lowering his earned-run average to 1.21.