Tri-City Bats Chilled on Warm Day by Vancouver
Published on August 22, 2025 under Northwest League (NWL)
Tri-City Dust Devils News Release
Tri-City Dust Devils catcher Dario Laverde at bat
(Tri-City Dust Devils)
VANCOUVER, B.C. - Though coming close early on the Tri-City Dust Devils (26-26 2H, 56-62) ultimately could not solve two pitchers throwing for the Vancouver Canadians (29-23 2H, 66-52) Friday afternoon at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium, where Tri-City fell 4-0.
The visitors came within inches of scoring the first run of the game in the top of the 3rd inning. DH Dario Laverde doubled down the right field line and advanced to third on a groundout. 2B Adrian Placencia then came up and struck a grounder to first with the infield in that Vancouver 1B Carter Cunningham fielded and threw home. Though some, including manager Dann Bilardello, thought Laverde had beaten the throw the call at the plate was "out," thwarting what ended up the best Dust Devils scoring chance of the day. LF Rio Foster had the other hit, a 7th inning line drive single to left.
Starter Chris Cortez (3-7) pitched well for Tri-City, holding the Canadians to a pair of runs over 5.1 innings in his longest outing since July 18. The first run came in in the 4th inning, on a double play groundball, with a two-run double and solo homer providing the rest of the runs for Vancouver. Silvano Hechavarria (2-0) flummoxed batters, though, going 6.2 innings and giving up the just two hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Lefty Juanmi Vasquez covered the rest for the save.
DUST DEVILS NOTES
-Reliever Fran Oschell III made his Dust Devils and High-A debut Friday by taking on the bottom of the 8th inning. The 12th round 2024 draft pick of the Angels, out of Duke University, gave up the solo home run but struck out three of the four batters he faced.
-Carlos Espinosa threw a perfect inning of relief in the 7th inning with a strikeout. The righty has given up runs only once in his seven August outings, on Tuesday against the Canadians.
-The Dust Devils have played eight originally scheduled games on Friday afternoon in Vancouver since the border reopened in 2022. The Nooners at the Nat have been a challenge for the visitors, who bear a 2-6 record in those games with three losses via shutout.
TOMORROW, YOU'RE ONLY A DAY AWAY
Tri-City and Vancouver return to Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium for game five of their six-game series at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night. Right-hander Ryan Johnson (4-3, 1.99 ERA) returns to the mound for the Dust Devils, pitching for the first time since his brilliant complete game one-hit shutout of Spokane July 6. The Canadians will send righty Jackson Wentworth (4-5, 4.36 ERA) out to start.
Free broadcast coverage, available at dustdevilsbaseball.com and the MiLB app, begins with the Dust Devils Pregame Show at 6:45 p.m.
After the weekend's games the Dust Devils will head to Spokane Valley to visit their Inland Northwest rivals, the Spokane Indians, for a six-game series from August 26-31. They will then return home to host the Hillsboro Hops September 2-7 to close out the 2025 regular season.
For tickets to the regular season-ending series with Hillsboro, visit the official ticket site: dustdevilsbaseball.com.
Images from this story
 Tri-City Dust Devils catcher Dario Laverde at bat |
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