Starter Jackson Cox dominates over career-high seven innings; Spokane Indians down Tri-City 4-2 in series opener

May 5—After a rough couple of weeks on the road, Spokane Indians manager Tom Sutaris said what everyone on the team was feeling on Tuesday.

"It's like Dorothy said : There's no place like home," Sutaris declared.

It helps when your starting pitcher is dominant — and goes deep in the game.

Jackson Cox struck out nine over seven innings, and the Spokane Indians beat the Tri-City Dust Devils 4-2 in the opener of a six-game High-A Northwest League series at Avista Stadium on Tuesday.

It was the team's second "Education Day" game of the season, with several hundred screaming elementary school kids — and their chaperons — packing the bleachers for the sun-drenched day game.

"It's good to be back here in front of our crowd," Sutaris said. "Great crowd today, and the boys just needed a reprieve and a day off. And I like the way they played today, and we'll keep moving forward."

The Indians (10-18) lost five of six games in Eugene last week and nine of 12 on the two-week road trip.

"It's always good, you know, to set the tone at the start of a series," outfielder Max Belyeu said. "Get that first one, it's big. And we'll keep bringing it tomorrow."

"It doesn't matter how long you play this game, you're always going to have struggles," Sutaris said. "This isn't a game you just figure out someday. I think the process is what we really have to focus on, because it's a long season and it's a long career, hopefully, and that it's always going to come back to the process. You can't ride the roller coaster in this game — it's just too hard a game to do that."

Cox (1-1) allowed just one hit — a solo homer — and three walks in the longest appearance of still-young professional career. He threw 84 pitches, 55 for strikes. He leads the league with 41 strikeouts in 292/3 innings this season.

"I felt pretty good. You know, (catcher Alan) Espinal did a great job behind the plate calling pitches, and obviously my defense was unbelievable," Cox said. "We're still moving forward. The guys are doing everything they can to get better every day, and I think that we have a really good team. We're going to head in the right direction here soon."

"We're getting a lot of good starting pitching," Sutaris said. "We've just got to help in other areas, because they're pretty much always going to give us a shot to win a ball game. (Cox) was outstanding today."

The Indians took the early lead in the second inning. Kevin Fitzer, mired in a 5-for-59 slump, led off the inning with a double then Belyeu was called out on strikes.

Tri-City manager Dann Bilardello came out with a trainer and after a very brief visit, lifted Dust Devils starter Tyler Bremner — the second overall pick of the 2025 MLB draft by the Los Angeles Angels.