The Eugene Emeralds bounced back from an ugly series against the Everett AquaSox to take four out of six over the Spokane Indians last week at Avista Stadium.
They won the first two games, lost the next two, and won the final pair to secure the victory. The offense thrived throughout the series, while the pitching ran into some problems that cost the Emeralds a chance at a sweep and made the wins closer than they perhaps should have been.
Big series for the offense
The Emeralds’ batters were overpowered at home by the AquaSox in the previous series, but they bounced back with authority against Spokane pitchers.
The team put up a collective .295/.419/.567 line, scoring 60 runs in six games for an average of 10 per game. They put up double-digit runs in five of the six games, including 12 in each of the first two.
They were led by Heath Quinn, who had a monster series going 9-for-18 with four homers. These were his first four homers as an Emerald. His performance was good for a 1.758 OPS that earned him High-A West Player of the Week honors. The 2016 third-round draft pick now owns a 1.083 OPS in 13 games with Eugene.
Quinn wasn’t the only Emerald who put up dominant numbers. Tyler Fitzgerald, Franklin Labour and Brett Auerbach all joined him in posting 1.000-plus OPSs for the series. Carter Aldrete and Armani Smith also posted a .391 and a .462 OBP, respectively.
Pitching still struggled
It was a different story on the pitching side of things. Emeralds pitchers gave up a total of 53 runs (50 earned) in 53 innings, good for an 8.32 ERA. They struck out only 51, while walking 37. For the season, Eugene owns the worst ERA in the High-A West with a 5.11 mark.
Giants No. 8 prospect Seth Corry’s struggles continued, as despite his strong stuff, the walks have progressively caught up with him. He gave up seven runs (six earned) while walking four in his outing. He has now walked 54 batters and hit 15 in 54 2/3 innings, with a 5.93 ERA.
Aaron Phillips started the first and last game of the series, giving up a total of eight runs (seven earned) on 13 hits in 7 1/3 innings.
Austin Reich pitched well in two appearances, surrendering only one run 4 1/3 innings while capping off a dramatic 10-9 win on Saturday. Chris Wright and John Russell were the only two Emeralds pitchers to not allow a run.
Every time the Emeralds would jump out to a big lead, they would always find the Indians clawing their way back. On Thursday, they had an 11-4 lead in the eighth inning and allowed 10 runs and seven walks in an ugly bullpen implosion. They also held strong leads on Saturday and Sunday, and narrowly held on to win 10-9 and 11-9, respectively.
The Emeralds stayed somewhat stagnant in the standings, finding themselves 4.5 games behind the AquaSox for first place in the High-A West. Everett split their series with the Tri-City Dust Devils, so Eugene simply picked up one game in the standings.
The Emeralds (38-27) will return to Eugene this week to take on the Hillsboro Hops (28-36), a team they’ve had success against. Game 1 starts on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.
