EUGENE — The Eugene Emeralds continued their second half of the season this week by splitting a series with the Everett AquaSox at PK Park. While they weren’t quite as successful as they’ve been most of this season, there were still plenty of positives to take away from the team’s performance.
Their offense was solid — in fact, better than it was the previous week when they took five out of seven over the Tri-City Dust Devils. Vaun Brown, Carter Aldrete and Hunter Bishop all continued to swing good bats as the Emeralds put up a total of 34 runs in the six games.
Starting pitching, which thrived for Eugene last week, was more of a mixed bag this week. The bottom line was when they got good starting pitching, they won, and won they got subpar starting pitching, they lost. Two of their three losses came with their starting pitcher making his High-A debut, so there’s clearly a learning curve to work through there. They had to operate without Ryan Murphy, who was promoted to Double-A Richmond.
The Emeralds won the first two games of the series, fueled by strong offense and starting pitching. Mason Black gave Eugene another good start, limiting Everett to one run in six innings. Bishop, fresh off winning Player of the Month for June, homered in the 5-1 series-opening victory, while the struggling Pat Bailey also hit a two-run homer.
The Emeralds had two other homers in that game, with Luis Toribio hitting one off the foul pole and Brown hitting his first High-A bomb. Brown has thrived since his promotion. He went 8-for-19 with two homers in the series.
Aldrete went off in the second game, smacking a three-run homer in the first inning and a grand slam in the second inning. He added a top tier bat flip to boot. Backed by five solid innings from Jake Wong, the Emeralds seemed to be cruising through the series.
Right-hander Keaton Winn made his High-A debut Thursday. A quick glance at his Low-A numbers shows a high ERA but strong peripherals. His performance was iffy, giving up three runs in just 3 2/3 innings. Ty Weber kept the Emeralds in the game with 3 1/3 solid innings in relief, but the offense couldn’t quite complete a comeback as they fell 4-3.
Giants No. 3 prospect Luis Matos hit his second homer of the year and made a nice diving catch in center, while Jairo Pomares homered after striking out in his first three at-bats.
The Emeralds lost again Friday, evening the series with a 10-6 downfall. Left-hander Nick Swiney, who was dominant for Eugene last week in a 12-strikeout performance, allowed the first four batters he faced to score. He ultimately gave up six runs in three innings, which the Emeralds couldn’t overcome despite scoring five runs in the final three innings. Casey Schmitt homered and looked solid at shortstop, where he’s been filling in in the absence of Marco Luciano.
Eugene got back on track Saturday with a 6-3 victory. The offense was fueled by a grand slam from Bishop, his second homer of the series. The outfielder, who’s the brother of big leaguer Braden Bishop, missed nearly all of last year due to injury. He struggled at the beginning of this season, but he’s really come around over the last month-plus.
Wil Jensen gave the Emeralds a typically strong performance Saturday. He got off to a shaky start, giving up a run in each of the first two innings, but he settled in and wound up providing seven good innings, allowing four hits and walking nobody while striking out nine. The under-the-radar right-hander has been a consistent force for this Eugene team.
The Emeralds had another starter make his High-A debut Sunday. This time it was Landen Roupp, who came out of the gates struggling to throw strikes. He settled in somewhat, but he still gave the Emeralds only four innings while surrendering three runs. He did strike out seven in that span.
The offense scored four runs in the first inning but couldn’t do anything after that, losing 6-4 in front of the packed PK Park crowd. They knocked Everett starter Juan Mercedes out in the first inning, but they could only muster three hits against the AquaSox bullpen. As fireworks blasted in the dark night sky above the Player Development Area in right field, the Emeralds had to go home settling for a series split.
Eugene still continues to provide a fantastic product and atmosphere for minor league baseball. It’s been nothing but a successful tenure since last year when the Emeralds became a full-season Giants affiliate.
After spending the last two weeks at home, the first-half champions will travel to Hillsboro for a six-game set that begins Monday with a 4th of July celebration.
