With a revamped approach that saw them swinging any chance they got, the Spokane Indians came to play baseball on Friday.
The Eugene Emeralds lost 7-1 to the Indians at PK Park on Friday evening, as they were overmatched and overpowered against this aggressive Spokane club. The loss evens the series at 2-2 and puts the Emeralds in a three-way tie for first place in the High-A West with the Everett AquaSox and the Vancouver Candians.
Nick Avila got his second start and fifth appearance for Eugene. The Indians swung early and often against him, as he worked through a perfect first inning on only six pitches. The first two batters in the second inning each swung at the first pitch, but this time they singled and tripled as Spokane took a 1-0 lead.
The third batter of the inning once again swung at the first pitch, the fifth hitter to do so out of the first six batters Avila faced. He hit a groundout to bring home a second run, but Avila settled down to prevent any further damage.
The Emeralds, who have been searching for their leadoff hitter, turned to Simon Whiteman and his .449 OBP. Whiteman grounded out and the next three batters struck out, but Franklin Labour blasted a home run to center in the second inning to cut the Indians’ lead in half.
The Indians kept their aggressive approach in the third inning, a significant change from their previous matchups against the Emeralds. They scored two more runs, swinging and making contact on nearly every pitch in the vicinity of the strike zone.
Avila countered this approach by pitching around the batters, and ended the inning with two groundouts on 3-0 counts.
Avila gave up two singles in the fifth, throwing a total of five pitches to the four batters he faced, and was subsequently pulled with two outs. He faced 24 batters and threw just 62 pitches, for an average of 2.58 per batter, striking out zero in what was an utterly bizarre outing.
Eugene reliever John Russell struggled in the sixth, allowing a three-run homer as the Indians extended their lead to 7-1.
After Avila didn’t strike out anyone in 4 2/3 innings, the next 10 Emerald outs were all via the strikeout, much more in tune with what the Emeralds have done this season and only furthering the bizarreness of this game.
The aggressiveness finally caught up with the Indians, but the damage was already done and they secured the 7-1 victory.
The Emeralds’ offense struggled. Whiteman went 0-for-4 from the leadoff spot, and Patrick Bailey struck out three times as he continues to punch out at an alarmingly high rate of over 31%. Logan Wyatt had three multi-hit games from May 5-7, but has gone 5-for-52 since.
The Emeralds (14-8) will play Game 5 of their six-game series against the Indians (8-14) on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
