5th Times The Charm: Expos Pitching Stymies Richmond Bats For First Win in 5 Tries; 3-2 Vancouver in Exhibition Play

It took Vancouver 33 innings but they have finally solved as Kyle Williams (Burnaby's Manager) calls it, the Chucker puzzle. The Expos pitching staff (Howse, Hutchings, Horino and Domingo) was stellar today as they struck out a combined 9 Richmond batters and pitched 6 straight scoreless innings, the only blemish being a hit to RF that scored both Richmond's runs in the first inning. Vancouver, sporting the drifit baby blues were able to scratch across one more run than the other guys and defeat the boys in the drifit yellows 3-2 in exhibition play.

EXPOS 3 Richmond 2

No one knows what it was, why Richmond has had Vancouver's number all year, why Vancouver plays so poorly against Klenman's Chuckers...no one knows. But today, the Expos were looking to break the streak, to play good baseball and compete against one of the top teams in the league, something that they have failed to do in their last four meetings with the Chuckers. Whether or not this exhibition game meant anything it was satisfying to see Vancouver come out determined straight from warmup and finally play a tight competitive ballgame against a team they will be squaring off against come provincials.

The top of the first saw Vancouver strand 2 runners in scoring position as they had two chances to score the first run of the game 80 feet away, but failed to do so. Richmond would make the Expos pay in the bottom half of the inning as Sato would hit a 2 RBI single to RF scoring 2 runs, to once again give Richmond the lead, something they have gotten used to in their last four encounters with the Expos. After back to back walks to lead off the inning, a balk and that 2 RBI single, Howse (Vancouver's starter) would settle down finish the 1st inning and pitch a scoreless second to keep the deficit at 2.

Vancouver never put their head down as they scratched across a run in the 3rd thanks to a leadoff double by Hutchings, walk by Betonio, bunt single by Antiporda and a sac fly by Domingo. However, a 1-out successful double steal two pitches later would become moot as Vancouver again failed to cash in with runners in scoring position stranding another 2 of their 11 runners on the day.

Howse gave way to Hutchings who definitely looked like a different pitcher than the last time Richmond saw him, Hutchings only allowed one runner to reach base (via. an infield error) keeping the Expos within 1. In the 5th, Howse would get himself off the hook for the loss as he hit a 2-out RBI single off the glove of first baseman, Finklestein to knot things up at 2.

Horino would pitch a scoreless 5th, getting help from Suarez behind the dish as the 2014 LLWS catcher would throw out McGill attempting to steal 2nd for the third out of the inning. Domingo would throw a 1-2-3 6th to set up the all important 7th inning. A walk, error and a double steal had Vancouver in business with none out; Domingo would hit a dribbler to 1st scoring Betonio without a throw giving the Expos their first lead in 30 innings against Richmond this year. Domingo would then lock down the 7th to pick up the win. 

Vancouver all year had been burned by the Chuckers offence, being outhit 51-23 but today the pitching was dominant from the committee of Expos pitchers only allowing a single hit on the day to stymie Richmond's potent offence. The next time these two teams meet will be in a high stakes provincial game in Nanaimo.