GJ Hill provides offensive spark, Spokane Indians blank Vancouver 3-0
A 132-game baseball season spans 5 1/2 months and in the Pacific Northwest can involve each of the four seasons. To say it’s a grind is an understatement – especially since a large percentage of the players assigned to High-A are adjusting to the rigors of playing in their first full season in professional baseball or are recent draft picks just getting their feet wet after exhausting their amateur status.
But even second- or third-year pros can get worn down by the daily workouts and games, wildly varying temperatures and the long bus rides. It’s why MLB has made so many changes the past few years to improve the working conditions for minor league baseball players.
Still, come mid-August it can be hard for these young players to fight through everything and continue to perform at an optimal level.
With offense at a premium the past week, the Indians did just enough at the plate and got solid pitching performances to get back into the win column.
GJ Hill scored the game’s first run then hit an insurance home run in the seventh inning and the Spokane Indians edged the Vancouver Canadians 3-0 in a Northwest League game at Avista Stadium on Wednesday.
The Indians improved to 29-15, three games ahead of second-place Vancouver (26-18).
Indians starter Mason Green threw 5 2/3 shutout innings. He allowed just three hits – though he walked five – and he struck out five. He threw 104 pitches, 57 for strikes.
“Having a start after maybe 3 1/2 days of rest, I was a little fatigued,” Green said. “But you know, give our guys a chance to win every inning.
“It’s a long season. You’re not gonna feel great. But you gotta find a way to give yourself a good chance to help out the team.”
Vancouver starter Jauron Watts-Brown was even better, limiting the Indians to two hits and three walks over six innings with eight strikeouts.
The Indians finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth. Hill and EJ Andrews hit back-to-back singles, then Cole Carrigg walked to load the bases. Dyan Jorge hit one off the end of his bat that was caught in medium-deep right field and Hill beat the throw home to make it 1-0.
Green got two outs in the sixth then, quickly wearing down with a pitch count approaching 100, he allowed a single and issued a walk and manager Robinson Cancel made a pitching change to Carlos Torres. Goodwin hit one right on the button but also right at first baseman Jose Cordova, who snared the sinking liner for the third out of the inning.
After back-to-back singles by the bottom of the order, Vancouver had runners at the corners with one down in the seventh, but Torres bounced back for a strikeout and groundout to keep it 1-0.
Hill doubled that with one swing in the bottom half. On a 2-1 count, the switch-hitter batting lefty turned on a fastball and lined it toward the caboose in right center. Right fielder Je’Von Ward leapt at the wall, but the ball stayed just beyond his reach and went into the single row of seats between the outfield wall and the restaurant on the concourse.
“I got just enough,” Hill said. “It kind of looked like he caught it, so I got pretty nervous there for a second. Then I saw the umpire signal a home run, so it was a happy trip around the bases.”
It was Hill’s seventh High-A homer of the season in just 29 games.
Cole Messina added a bloop RBI single in the eighth, knocking Dyan Jorge who had been hit by a pitch and stole second and third.