The Eugene Emeralds won their second consecutive home series this week, taking four out of six games over the Vancouver Canadians at PK Park. They wrapped up a 10-2 homestand, at one point winning eight in a row. They find themselves a half-game ahead of the tough Everett AquaSox for first place in the High-A West.
The strong offense overcame some iffy pitching, while two of the Emeralds’ first-rounders saw their struggles take somewhat of a toll as the weather warmed up and the team dived headfirst into the grind of the 120-game baseball season.
Another good series for the offense
The Emeralds’ offense has come and gone in waves this season, but it put up another impressive showing this series that ultimately fueled the victory. While the Emeralds only scored one run in a Game 4 loss, they scored 31 runs in the other five games. They led the High-A West this week in OPS, with an .820 mark hovering over the next-best .778.
It’s been a different hero seemingly every night for the Emeralds, and this week it was overwhelmingly Tyler Fitzgerald. He went 9-for-21 with three homers, good for a 1.407 OPS. Sean Roby was also impressive, with an .890 OPS.
Logan Wyatt continued his streaky, mixed season; he put up a .400 OBP, and now has a .397 OBP for the season, yet the bat still hasn’t fully come around.
First-rounders suddenly having a rough go of it
While the offense as a whole was impressive, the two first-rounders in the lineup have seen their seasons slide a bit.
Shortstop Will Willson, who’s been the star of this team for most of the year, struggled this series and saw his numbers take a bit of a dip. He had the lowest OPS of the seven qualified Emeralds batters this week, with a .585 mark dropping his season OPS to .824. He’s no longer the team’s OPS leader, with Franklin Labour passing him.
Wilson does still lead the team with nine homers, however.
Catcher Patrick Bailey finds himself in an even worse position. He missed all of last series with back stiffness, and after briefly making his return this series, he was sent down to the ACL Giants Orange.
It’s been a tough go for Bailey, but it’s important to note that it is his first professional season, so there’s likely to be bumps in the road.
The pitching wasn’t great
The pitching staff allowed a 5.50 ERA this week, although a lot of those runs did come in Game 4’s 13-run barrage by the Canadians. Still, it continued an up-and-down trend for these pitchers, who at times have shown electric stuff but have also been plagued by walks.
One of the biggest storylines of this season has been their unreal strikeout numbers, but recently, their strikeout numbers have been merely “very good” instead of “elite.” They struck out 58 in 54 innings, bringing their season K/9 down to a still-great 11.59. Over the last month, their K/9 is 10.19, which again, is still really good, but not quite up to the elite standards they were setting early in the season.
They also walked 30 in those 54 innings, which is always a recipe for disaster. Over the last month, they have a 4.78 BB/9, and that’s really been their downfall as a pitching staff. They have a wide variety of talented arms in the rotation and out of the bullpen who have been getting the clutch outs more often than not, leading this team to still have plenty of success, but the walks continue to be an issue.
With the Emeralds’ win on Sunday, they’re the first team in the High-A West to win 30 games. They also had to play through the highest temperature in Eugene history on Sunday, with it reaching as high as 109 degrees.
The AquaSox are hanging in there, with a four-game winning streak of their own that has them still within a half-game of the Emeralds. The AquaSox are also the only team this season that the Emeralds have lost a series to.
Next up, the Emeralds (30-17) will go back on the road to face the Hillsboro Hops (19-27), who they swept at home a week ago. Game 1 will start on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.
