Tuesday night, all of the small plays went the way of the Tri-City Dust Devils against the Eugene Emeralds.
Wednesday night, the script was flipped.
After falling 2-0 to the Dust Devils the night before, the Emeralds won 2-0, thanks to stellar pitching, a well-placed grounder from shortstop Jace Peterson in the seventh inning and a pinch-hit home run from Dan Killian in the eighth inning.
“Our pitching staff, the last two nights, has really given us a chance,” first-year Emeralds manager Pat Murphy said. “Really lucky tonight, we had some things go our way, balls bounce our way. Strike three bounces to the backstop and that runner scores.”
The Emeralds’ (29-18) pitching staff held the Dust Devils (28-19) to three hits for the second straight night, but this time, Eugene’s defense saved runs instead of allowing them. After starting pitcher Cody Hebner had gone 3 2/3 innings without giving up a hit, he found Dust Devils second baseman Timothy Smalling on second base with two outs. Then, Tri-City designated hitter Leonardo Reyes hit a sharp ground ball to the left of Emeralds third baseman Travis Whitmore, who made a diving stop and kept the ball on the infield, keeping Smalling from scoring. It was ruled a single, Tri-City’s first hit of the night, but it was little consolation as Dust Devils third baseman Jayson Langfels struck out looking to end the inning and Hebner’s outing.
“The results turned out in my favor,” Hebner said. “But I didn’t try to think about it too much and just wanted to get my team a chance to win.”
In only his second start of the season, Hebner’s pitching line was four innings of one-hit ball with four strikeouts — three swinging — and one walk.
“I was a starter throughout college, so the transition wasn’t too hard; it was a little bit more tough coming out of the bullpen, it’s a lot different mind-set,” Hebner said. “It was a lot of fun but I’m glad to be back on the hill starting games.”
Hebner was relieved by Matt Andriese, who went two shutout innings of his own, giving up two hits and striking out one.
Eugene’s outstanding pitching masked its offensive woes. The Emeralds had only six hits in the game; their first runner to reach second base was designated hitter Donavan Tate with two outs in the sixth inning. A stellar performance from Dust Devils starter Ricardo Ferrer didn’t help the Emeralds’ cause, as he went six innings, giving up three hits and a walk while striking out five batters.
The Emeralds plated their first run in the seventh inning when they loaded the bases with one out in the inning against Dust Devils reliever Rhett Ballard. Eugene center fielder Kyle Gaedele reached on a strikeout with a wild pitch, and was followed by a single to right field from catcher Jeremy Rodriguez and a walk by Whitmore. Peterson then hit a ground ball right up the middle to Tri-City shortstop Taylor Featherston, who made a diving stop but was unable to throw to any base, giving Peterson an infield hit and scoring the first run of the game.
“We had bases loaded, one out, their shortstop makes an incredible play, but it doesn’t finish,” Murphy said. “Some things went our way. They’re a good team, they pitch well, they swing the bats, and we’ve held them two six hits in two nights.”
Tri-City left fielder Jaron Shepherd led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a walk against Emeralds reliever Matthew Stites. The fleet-of-foot Dust Devil was trying to get a lead off first base when Stites threw over and appeared to have picked him off, but he was ruled safe by first base umpire Lee Meyers. After Murphy came out of the Emeralds dugout to argue the call, Meyers conferred with home plate umpire Ed Leopold, who reversed the call. This prompted an eruption from Dust Devils manager Freddy Ocasio, who was ejected from the game.
“I just said, ‘I think you missed something there, and I’m not going away. I think you missed something. I think you need to ask about it,’” Murphy said. “He decided that he might have missed something and he wanted to ask for help to get it right. You don’t always find an umpire confident enough to do that, knowing that once I do that, there’s a really good I’m going to have to admit it and it’s going to blow up.”
The next batter, Dust Devils center fielder Brian Humphries hit a line drive up the middle that hit the left arm of the right-handed Stites before ricocheting to second baseman Justin Miller, who threw to first base to retire Humphries. Stites was immediately removed from the game and replaced by reliever Chris Wilkes, who struck out Smalling to end the inning. Murphy said Stites’ grip was relatively unaffected, but was unable to give further comment about his pitcher’s health.
The Emeralds tacked on an insurance run in the eighth inning when pinch-hitter Dan Killian pulled a Ballard fastball into the Emeralds’ bullpen in right field to double their lead.
“Just coming in like that, it’s kind of exciting because you’ve been waiting the whole game, not knowing when you’re going to go in,” Killian said. “You get the call and I tried to do the best I could, got a good pitch to hit, and I did that.”
That was more than Wilkes would need, as he threw a perfect ninth inning with two more strikeouts to earn the save.
“It makes me feel awesome when we put up nine zeros,” Hebner said of his teammates’ shutout performance.
The Emeralds and Dust Devils meet Friday at 7 p.m. at PK Park for the fourth game of their five-game series. Eugene currently is one game above Tri-City for the top record in the Northwest League.