EVERETT It seemed the Everett AquaSox had turned a corner.
The Everett hitters had changed their approach at the plate. They’d begun taking more pitches, they were avoiding swinging at pitches out of the strike zone and they’d curtailed the strikeouts, thus pulling themselves out of an ugly losing skid.
However, Everett’s newfound bat control proved short lived as the AquaSox reverted to their whiffing ways Monday night.
Everett had yet another futile day at the plate, striking out 17 times as the Sox fell 6-1 to the Spokane Indians on a wet evening at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Spokane scored all six of its runs in a fifth-inning rally aided by an outfield slip, including a three-run home run by Edmonds-Woodway High School graduate Ian Gac.
But it it wouldn’t have taken much to beat an Everett team that has now struck out 14 times, 17 times and 19 times (twice) during the last week.
Everett manager Mike Tosar could only scratch his head when considering Everett’s continual failure to make contact.
“We’re just swinging at balls out of the zone again,” he lamented. “We’ve got inconsistent approaches. A couple days we’re on and then we’re back to where we started. It’s a constant thing we’ve been working on with the guys. Until they figure it out they’re going to stay here in this league.”
Gregory Halman provided all of Everett’s offense with a first-inning solo home run. It was the third straight game in which he homered.
Beyond that there wasn’t much else working for Everett’s offense. The Sox managed just three other hits, and no other Everett baserunner advanced past second base.
The Sox (25-35) have now struck out 630 times in 60 games, an average of more than 10 times per contest.
Spokane starter Mike Main, a first-round pick in this year’s draft who is just two months removed from high school, was a big part of Everett’s struggles. The right-hander had the AquaSox flummoxed, striking out nine in his five innings. He gave up just one run, three hits and one walk to earn his first win as a professional.
And the Indians even had fortune on their side as a slip by Halman in pursuit of a routine fly to center helped open the floodgates for Spokane in the fifth.
“That six-run inning took the air out of us,” Tosar said. “But that’s still no excuse. You still have to compete for nine innings. No matter what happens you have to treat each at bat with the same intensity.”
Gac finished 2-for-4 with three RBI to lead Spokane (29-30). Matt Lawson, Renny Osuna and Mitch Moreland each added two hits for the Indians.
Everett starting pitcher Alfredo Venegas tossed four scoreless innings, but then got tagged in the fifth. He ended up surrendering six runs on nine hits and three walks to take the loss, falling to 2-2. He struck out three.
Halman opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning, lining the ball the opposite way just over the right-field fence and into the homer porch. Halman’s 13th of the season staked the Sox to a 1-0 lead.
But it all came crashing down for the Sox in the fifth. It began when Lawson lined an RBI double down the left-field line to tie it at 1-1.
Then came the critical moment. Osuna lofted a routine fly to center. However, Halman slipped on a wet spot in the outfield and the ball dropped for a gift RBI double, giving the Indians the lead and keeping the rally alive.
Jonathan Greene followed with an RBI single and Gac later launched his league-leading 15th homer of the season high over the scoreboard in right-center, and just like that Spokane led 6-1.
And with the Sox swinging and missing, that proved more than enough for Spokane.
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