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YAKIMA -- The weather? Flawless. The crowd? Festive.

The sight of Spokane's Indians leaving town? From the Bears' painful point of view, priceless.

Yakima absorbed its first series sweep and worst beating of the season Saturday night, and the 14-2 drubbing administered by Spokane was every bit as one-sided as the score would indicate.

But would you believe that in losing three straight to the Northwest League-dominating Indians (25-7), Yakima led in two of them?

The Bears even held a brief 2-0 advantage in this one, before an announced Yakima County Stadium crowd of 2,228 watched Spokane roll up 14 unanswered runs against a depleted pitching staff.

Regardless, Yakima also left this morning, for five games at Vancouver, and the change of both scenery and opponent might well prove beneficial. Having lost six of seven, the Bears have fallen a season-high eight games under .500 at 12-20.

It should come as no surprise that Yakima's problems began early -- before the Bears donned their Military Night camouflaged jerseys, even.

Houston Summers, the knuckleballer scheduled to start, had been sent to Tacoma to help an impoverished Tucson staff in its Pacific Coast League game with the Rainiers.

"The kid we started tonight (19-year-old Santo Baez) found out he was it at about 3 o'clock," Bears manager Bob Didier said. "But I had a good feeling at the start of the game. We got a couple of runs and he gave us a couple of good innings. Then the game got away from us."

Justin Parker, still recovering from a shoulder injury, produced a two-out, two-run single from his designated hitter slot in the second, only to see the Indians score four times in the third and seven times in an 11-batter, eight-hit fourth.

Didier had little choice but to stick with Jesus Cespedes during the latter frame before calling on Daniel Vasquez and Sean Morgan for two innings each and Bryan Woodall for one.

David Paisano, in the leadoff spot for a team hitting a collective .279 coming in, swung the heaviest Spokane bat. He doubled in two runs in the fourth, then capped the scoring with a three-run homer in the seventh.

Seven of the nine Indians starters had at least two hits. Parker and Alfredo Marte had two each for the Bears, whose eight-hit total was doubled by Spokane even with leading hitter Joey Butler (.381) given the night off.

"It was a good game for us because we'd been held down pretty well by their pitching the last few days," Indians manager Tim Hulett said. "It was a good breakout night for us, and we feel good about our team."

And Summers, if absent, felt some of the Bears' pain. The right-hander was roughed up for seven hits and seven runs over three innings in which he walked five, threw three wild pitches and hit a batter.

"Bad day the for the Bears all the way around," Didier said. "Our only option is to get on the bus in the morning, go to Vancouver and get this thing turned around."