Behind two homers from Yelich, Sardine City evens series

Sardine City evened its Best-of-7 series Thursday afternoon with a 4-3 win over top-seed Vancouver behind two home runs from a hot-hitting Christian Yelich and a solid outing by journeyman left-hander Daniel Norris.

Yelich led off the game with a home run for the second straight night. Robbie Grossman's miscue in left field allowed Evan Longoria to reach second base before Joc Pederson walked and Tyler Flowers came up with another postseason run-scoring single. Eric Hosmer doubled home Pederson and the Straphangers plated 3 runs. They could have had more but Grossman redeemed himself by gunning down Flowers trying to score from 3rd on Stephen Piscotty's fly ball, end the inning on a double play.


Vancouver had some opportunities in the 1st. Charlie Blackmon was caught stealing and back-to-back walks brought up J.D. Martinez who singled to load the bases. Up to the plate came Grossman, who grounded into an inning-ending double play.

The Iron Fist would get on the board in the 2nd inning. After a leadoff walk, Tyler Saladino took second on a groundout and came home on a Will Myers single. Brandon Crawford with a double, scoring Myers, and cutting the lead to 3-2.

Yelich connected on another solo homer in the 4th to put Sardine City up 4-2. An Evan Longoria single later and the Iron Fist had seen enough of Colby Lewis, calling to the bullpen for Jose Quintana. The left-hander got out of the inning and tossed 3 1/3 hitless innings to keep the Iron Fist close.



But Vancouver couldn't quite get anything going against Daniel Norris, who settled down after the 2-run second inning to allow just one more hit and walk through six. Charlie Blackmon finally broke through with a solo homer in the 7th, making it a one-run game and sending Norris to the showers.

Anthony Rendon would lead off the 8th a single off Hector Rondon -- only the third Vancouver hit since the 2nd inning -- but get eliminated on a double play. Koji Uehara pitched a quiet 9th to earn the save in the 4-3 win, evening the series at 1-1.

The Vancouver bullpen allowed just 1 hit over the final 5 2/3 innings after Lewis existed. Lewis took the loss, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 8 hits in 3 1/3 innings. Norris picked up the win, going 6 2/3, limiting the Iron First to 3 runs despite 6 hits and 4 walks; he struck out 6. The left-hander kicked around with a few teams during the season and is the least-tenured Straphanger after getting signed on the final day of the year to replace Bartolo Colon. He's now 2-0 in the postseason.

Along with the two home runs, Yelich led all batters with 3 hits and 2 runs and 2 RBI.