Victor Juarez dominant for seven innings; Spokane Indians blank Tri-City 6-0

Twice last week against Hillsboro, the Spokane Indians were no-hit by the opposing starting pitcher into the seventh inning. On Tuesday, Indians starter Victor Juarez tried to replicate the feat.

And while he didn’t quite get there, he did produce a reasonable facsimile.

Juarez tossed five innings before allowing a hit and the Spokane Indians blanked the Tri-City Dust Devils 6-0 in the opener of the final Northwest League homestand of the season at Avista Stadium. 

Catcher Cole Messina went 2 for 4 with his first professional homer and two RBIs.

Juarez ended up going seven innings and allowed one hit and two walks with 10 strikeouts. He threw 87 pitches, 58 for strikes. 

“Outstanding job,” Indians pitching coach Blaine Beatty said of Juarez. “We’ve been working on some stuff about him getting to the bottom (of the strike zone) more consistent, as well as knowing where that top rail was with his fastball. And he really, he really came to it tonight.

“I couldn’t be happier with his progress.”

“I thought this stuff was really, really good tonight,” Messina said. “He commanded his four pitches really well.” 

After a 1-2-3 first by Juarez, Cole Carrigg lined the second pitch of the bottom half just over the 6-foot wall at the short porch in right field for his 13th home run of the season. 

Juarez was perfect through three, and the Dust Devils (23-32) finally got a base runner in the fourth when right fielder GJ Hill couldn’t handle a sinking liner by Jadiel Sanchez that went for an error.

The Indians (34-21) rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom half. Charlie Condon and Kyle Karros led off the inning with back-to-back hits and Bryant Betancourt walked to load them up. A run scored on a fielder’s choice, then Messina beat out an infield hit for another run. 

“Kept the inning alive for the team, which was good,” Messina said.

Carrigg led off the fifth with a walk and went to third on Dyan Jorge’s infield single. The duo attempted a double steal, and Carrigg scored but Jorge came off the bag on the slide and was called out. Still, the Indians led 4-0 after five.

After Mac McCroskey led off the sixth with a walk, Juarez’s no-no was broken up on a solid single by No. 9 hitter Werner Blakely. But Juarez bounced back to strike out the next two batters, then Sanchez rolled over to first to end the inning.

Juarez gave up a one-out walk in the seventh, but after a visit by Beatty he came right back to strike out the next two for his ninth and 10th of the game.

Beatty said the message to his barely 21-year-old pitcher was simple.

” ‘Hey, if you’re going to throw breaking balls early in count, get them over for strikes.’ ” Beatty said. “And then he came back with some fastballs to that guy, and just ended up punching him out. Just ra eally fantastic job of staying focused and executing his pitches.”

Messina, in his ninth professional game, hit his first home run in the seventh – a towering fly ball that fell just out of the reach of a leaping Sanchez against the short wall at the 296-foot marker in the right field corner. 

Asked if he “got it all,” on the homer, Messina was succinct

“No, I know I didn’t. But, you know, just ‘played the course,’ right?”

Jake Snider followed with a single and scored later in the inning on a fielder’s choice to provide the final margin.

Welinton Herrera took over for Juarez and struck out four in two innings of shutout relief.

The series continues Wednesday at 6:35 p.m.