Joe Rock continues starter string of dominance, Spokane Indians blank Tri-City 8-0

For the second night in a row, the Spokane Indians were recipients of a six-inning shutout performance from their starting pitcher.

Unlike Friday’s nailbiter, though, when the visitors scored four in the top of the ninth, on Saturday the bullpen made the zero stand up.

Joe Rock tossed six scoreless innings and the Indians beat the Tri-City Dust Devils 8-0 for a second consecutive win at Avista Stadium.

The Indians (6-7 second half) have taken three of the first five games of the Northwest League series from the Dust Devils (5-9).

Rock was sublime. The 21-year-old lefty allowed three hits, walked one and struck out five. He threw 91 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Adam McKillican struck out five in two perfect innings of relief, and Anderson Bido handled the ninth to preserve the shutout.

Also for the second night in a row, the offense got going early to give the starting pitcher something to work with.

Eddy Diaz was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the first. The speedster went to second on a balk and stole third – his 29th of the season. Julio Carreras drew a one-out walk before Warming Bernabel launched his first home run since his promotion from Low-A Fresno at the beginning of the week.

It stayed that way until the fifth. Nic Kent led the inning off with a single and went to third when the Dust Devils botched a sacrifice attempt.

After Kent scored on a sacrifice fly, Braiden Ward was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a grounder by Zac Veen.

Carreras followed with a double to left-center and Veen scored from first to make it 5-0. The Indians added three insurance runs in the eighth, including an RBI single by Ronaiker Palma.