Victor Juarez good for six innings, Spokane Indians bats quiet against Vancouver in 5-0 less

The Spokane Indians have already locked up home -field advantage in the Northwest League championship series by virtue of their first-half title.

But there’s plenty left on the line as they welcomed the Vancouver Canadians to Avista Stadium on Tuesday, the team closest to the Indians in the standings and the leading candidate to be their opponent in the five-game league championship series.

The Indians entered play with a three-game lead over Vancouver in the second half standings and 66 wins overall – just one off the single-season record as an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

They’ll have to wait at least another day to equal the mark.

Adrian Pinto and Je’Von Ward hit home runs and the Indians were limited to six base hits in a 5-0 loss to Canadians in the opener of a six-game series.

The Indians (28-15) hit into five double plays against just two Canadians pitchers. Spokane is 18-5 this season against Vancouver 26-17.

Charlie Condon, the Rockies first-round pick – third overall – in this year’s MLB draft, picked up his first Avista Stadium hit in the fourth inning, a single through the hole on the left side. He came into the game hitting .286 (6 for 21) in his first five games with a homer and two doubles.

“I feel good, you know,” Condon said. “Just getting comfortable playing in Spokane with this group and feels good to be back home.”

He feels like he’s adjusting pretty well to professional baseball.

“Game by game I’m trying to take little bits and pieces of good and bad things and make the adjustments that need to be made to play my best baseball,” he said.

Indians starter Victor Juarez was the bad-luck loser. He allowed two runs on eight hits and no walks over six innings with eight strikeouts.

“Tough loss for him,” pitching coach Blaine Beatty said of Juarez. “He missed some execution on some spots. But you know, with him as young as he is, we’re still moving in the right direction with him. I think his stuff is really solid. It just comes down to really executing his pitches. And he paid for the ones he missed tonight.”

Juarez’s second pitch of the game turned into a high fly ball to left center by Pinto that just carried over the high wall above the 365-foot sign for the second baseman’s second home run of the season.

Vancouver added a run in the third when Jace Bohrofen singled and scored on a double by Jackson Hornung.

Juarez retired 10 of the last 13 batters he faced.

“(Juarez) started putting it together,” Beatty said. “We talked a little strategy there about expanding the zone in some bad counts, where it put him in three ball counts, but he went back out and continued to do what we wanted him to do. … He did a nice job finishing up and keeping us close.”

Indians reliever Felix Ramires hit the first two batters he faced in the seventh but bounced back to strike out the next three to keep it at 2-0.

He wasn’t so lucky in the eighth, as Ward led the inning off with a homer to right, his fifth of the season.

Spokane put runners at the corners with one down in the bottom half, but Jean Perez bounced into a 4-3 double play. The Canadians then added a couple of insurance runs in the ninth off Sergio Sanchez.

Indians outfielder Cole Carrigg went 0 for 4 and is hitting .166 (12 for 72) over his last 19 games.