Julio Carreras hits walk-off three-run homer, Spokane Indians beat Tri-City before July 4th fireworks
Jul. 5—After some morning showers, the skies cleared and with temperatures in the upper 60s, the weather was ideal for a baseball game on the Fourth of July.
The crowds flocked to Avista Stadium on Monday for the first sellout in over 1,000 days — going back to before the pandemic.
The pageantry was there as well. In a pregame ceremony, the club was presented by Team Fairchild with a flag flown by the 384th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron during ongoing operations in the middle east theatre and one of the KC-135 refueling tankers from Fairchild performed a flyover during the national anthem.
And of course, there was the obligatory postgame fireworks display.
But before that, Julio Carreras delivered some fireworks of his own.
Carreras clubbed a three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth, his ninth of the season, and the Spokane Indians beat the Tri-City Dust Devils 8-7 in the first game of a six-game High-A Northwest League series.
Carreras went 3 for 5 with a double, two runs and five RBIs.
Trailing by two and with one down in the ninth, Drew Romo was hit by a pitch and Grant Lavigne followed with a single through the right side. That brought up Carreras, who drilled an 0-2 pitch over the wall in left center off reliever Dakota Donovan to thrill the capacity crowd.
The Indians (4-5) led 5-4 after five innings, but Tri-City outfielder Steven Rivas delivered a two-run single in the seventh off reliever Tanner Propst, then in the eighth Edwin Yon sliced one down the right field line that stayed just fair for a solo homer off Boby Johnson and a late two-run lead.
Rivas finished 3 for 5 with a homer, triple and single for Tri-City (3-7).
Three runners reached against Indians starter Andrew Quezada in the first inning, but a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play helped him get out of it unscathed.
Eddy Diaz led off the bottom half with a long home run down the left field line for a 1-0 lead.
Tri-City answered in the second. Straton Podaras doubled into the left field corner and a two-out single by Mike Peabody plated the run.
Quezada got the first two batters in the third, then issued a pair of walks before Rivas tripled off the top of the left-center wall to make it 3-1.
Three straight singles in the bottom half, the last by Zac Veen, plated a run for the Indians.
Quezada went four innings and allowed three runs on six hits and four walks with two strikeouts. Rivas greeted reliever Robinson Hernandez in the fifth with a long solo homer to right center.
The Indians put up three in the fifth. With two down and two on, Carreras lined a single to center and Romo scored easily from second. The throw home beat Lavigne, trying to score from first, but catcher Podaras dropped the throw.
Warming Bernabel followed with an RBI double to give the Indians a one-run lead.
Lavigne went 3 for 5 to raise his NWL leading batting average to .315.
Game notes
—RHP Tony Locey (4-1, 3.09) was promoted to Double-A Hartford before the game. In corresponding moves, 3B Warming Bernabel and LHP Mason Green were promoted to Spokane from Low-A Fresno.
Bernabel, 20, is the Colorado Rockies No. 23 prospect according to MLB.com. He was hitting .317 with 10 homers and 54 RBIs over 65 games with the Grizzlies.
