Lantigua's two HRs lead Canadians to series split

Rafael Lantigua belted two home runs for the Vancouver Canadians on Sunday. Photo: Vancouver Canadians/Twitter

September 12, 2021

Official Vancouver Canadians News Release

HILLSBORO, OR – Rafael Lantigua homered twice to lead the Vancouver Canadians to an 8-4 win over the Spokane Indians (Rockies) on Sunday afternoon at Ron Tonkin Field.

Lantigua’s second blast proved to be the spark the C’s needed. After he went deep in the third to turn a two-run deficit into a 2-1 game, the Puerto Plata, D.R. native came up in the fifth with two on and one out. He wrapped a line drive around the right field foul pole for an opposite field, three-run shot that put Vancouver ahead for good.

Leading 4-2, the Canadians went on to score four more runs in the inning thanks in part to a two-RBI double from Davis Schneider and an Andres Guerra RBI single. When the dust settled, the C’s had matched a season high with seven runs in the inning and established a new mark with seven hits.

Starter Alejandro Melean went 4 2/3 innings, allowed two runs on six hits, walked one and K’d five before Hayden Juenger (W, 2-0), Roither Hernandez and Hagen Danner combined on the final four and a third.

With the win, the C’s earned a split with Spokane this week and finished their season series against the Indians having won 17 of 30 games.

Lantigua’s multi-homer game was the third such by a C’s hitter this year. His four RBI and two runs scored accounted for three-fourths of the Vancouver runs this afternoon. Trevor Schwecke had three hits while Will Robertson and Guerra had two hits apiece.

After the final off-day of the year on Monday, the Canadians began their last series of the season on Tuesday night as the home team against the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks). Adam Kloffenstein goes for Vancouver and Hillsboro has yet to name their starter.