Two homers not enough for Canadians in loss

Right-hander Rothier Hernandez pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the Vancouver Canadians on Sunday in his class-A Advanced debut. Photo: Vancouver Canadians/Twitter

June 27, 2021

Official Vancouver Canadians News Release

EUGENE, OR – Sebastian Espino and Luis De Los Santos both homered in the fourth, but that proved to be all the offence the Vancouver Canadians could muster as they fell 7-2 to the Eugene Emeralds (Giants) Sunday afternoon at PK Park.

In a record-setting 109-degree day in Eugene, the C’s saw the hometown Emeralds go up 5-0 with two runs in the second and three in the third before Espino and De Los Santos clubbed their respective home runs. The former did so on the third pitch of the inning before the latter went deep for the third time this week to make it 5-2. De Los Santos now leads the active roster with six home runs on the season and finished the series with 10 RBIs in six games played.

Starter Brian Rapp (L, 0-2) went three innings before the bullpen took over. Sean Mellen turned in his finest outing with the Canadians by working a pair of scoreless stanzas before Connor Law was touched for two runs on two hits in two-thirds of an inning before Roither Hernandez made his class-A Advanced debut with an inning and a third of run-free relief. Parker Caracci rounded out the day by hanging a zero in the eighth for his only inning of work.

Espino and De Los Santos led the offence with two hits and an RBI apiece while Spencer Horwitz singled and doubled for his second multi-hit performance of the series. Tanner Morris and Phil Clarke also finished with one hit each.

After an off day on Monday, Vancouver travels to Everett to take on the AquaSox (Mariners) for their first visit to Funko Field. No. 10 Blue Jays prospect (MLB.com) CJ Van Eyk gets the nod for the C’s and will be opposed by Everett’s Juan Then, who is ranked by MLB.com as the No. 7 Mariners prospect. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.