Bears back again

Yakima squanders early lead, rallies past Canadians ||

YAKIMA, Wash. — They threw Roberto Ortiz a curve Wednesday night, late in an evening in which the Bears had thrown a couple of their own.

Yakima had, after all, blown a four-run lead in its quest of a four-game winning streak. One of its relief pitchers had — horrors! — given up a run.

But at the end there was Ortiz, the outfielder who got into manager Bob Didier’s lineup in the Bears’ fifth game this season, started hitting and simply hasn’t stopped.

And that includes Ortiz’s latest appearance, in which he dumped a breaking ball into shallow right field to give Yakima a 6-5 walk-off win over Vancouver before an announced crowd of 1,902 at Yakima County Stadium.

So the streak lives.

Yakima Bears' Roberto Ortiz is congratulated after scoring in the first inning against the Vancouver Canadians Wednesday, June 30, 2010. Ortiz doubled in the inning. (Andy Sawyer/Yakima Herald-Republic)

The Bears (6-7), having won five of six, will try to extend it tonight with the first of three games at Boise, after which they will return Sunday to meet Tri-City.

Ortiz, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound 21-year-old from Santruce, Puerto Rico, smiled broadly when asked if he’d produced any prior game-winners.

“No,” he said, “first one. I’m very excited.”

And why not?

Including Wednesday night’s 2-for-5 performance, Ortiz has hit in all eight games in which he’s batted and his .424 average ranks second in the Northwest League.

But none of his 14 hits has been as big as the last one, which came an inning after Raywilly Gomez’s pinch-hit single had tied the score at 5.

Once winning pitcher Greg Robinson (1-1) completed his second inning of relief in the top of the ninth, Jimmy Comerota led off the bottom of the frame with a single. He stole second, then took third on Ender Inciarte’s one-out swinging-bunt base hit.

Enter Ortiz, who’d doubled home one of Yakima’s four first-inning runs, to face Canadians closer Mike Hart.

“I was expecting him to throw me a curveball,” Ortiz said, “and when he did, I just tried to put a good swing on it.”

It was obviously good enough.

“As a manager,” Didier said, “the way you get to play more is to do what he’s done. It seems like he’s gotten two hits every night since we got him into a game, and that’s the ultimate message a player needs to give to a manager. You want to play? Go out and get two hits every night like this kid, and you’ll play.”

Yakima broke quickly, getting first-inning doubles by Westley Moss, Ortiz and Zach Walters. After Raoul Torrez was hit in his first professional at bat, Evan Button blooped a two-out, two-run single just beyond the reach of Canadians’ third baseman Marco Luis.

But Vancouver (6-7) got a run back in the second via successive singles and an infield groundout.

And after Bears starter Enrique Burgos issued his second and third walks in the third but escaped unscathed, he walked the bases loaded with no outs in the fourth.

Marco Luis, the C’s No. 9 hitter, scored one run with a flair single to center, after which Burgos walked home another run to finish his evening and narrow Yakima’s lead to 4-3.

Andrea Pizziconi came on to induce a 5-4-3 double play, but the runner from third scored to tie it. Then in the sixth, Ryan Lipkin led off with a homer just inside the left field foul pole for a 5-4 Vancouver advantage.

It was only the second run allowed by Yakima relievers in their last 18 innings.

But neither Pizziconi nor Andrew Berger — making his pro debut — nor Robinson allowed another, giving the Bears a chance for their fourth straight come-from-behind win.

Moss, Inciarte and Ortiz had two hits apiece to lead Yakima’s 12-hit attack. And Torrez, a 21st-round draftee from Arizona State, singled for his first pro hit in third inning and made several impressive plays at third base.

The Bears also stole four bases, adding to their pregame total of 19 that ranked second in the league.