Before the Eugene Emeralds’ matchup against the Hillsboro Hops on Friday, Hops DH Jorge Barrosa approached Brett Auerbach, who was wearing catcher’s gear. Barrosa’s eyes widened as he exclaimed, “You’re Auerbach? You’re catching today? You do everything, man!”
They each smiled as Barrosa walked away, shaking his head while chuckling to himself.
Auerbach has played catcher, second, third and center for the Emeralds this season, and entered the night with a homer in each of his last three games.
He was in the middle of warming up Friday night’s starting pitcher, Giants No. 5 prospect Seth Corry. Corry entered the night with a 5.93 ERA, 54 walks and 15 hit batters in 54 2/3 innings this season.
Corry set out to fix his control problems by utilizing his fastball, and it came with mixed results. He gave up three runs in four innings, as the Emeralds brought an 8-3 lead into the seventh. But the bullpen collapsed for the third time in the last two weeks, giving up seven runs in the seventh and ultimately falling 10-9, ending their two-game winning streak.
Corry relied on the fastball early, reaching as high as 96 mph in the first inning and sitting at 94. He issued a one-out walk, briefly bringing his season K/9 back up to 9.0. But he induced an inning-ending double play, throwing almost exclusively fastballs.
Ismael Munguia led off the Emeralds’ half of the first with a double. Tyler Fitzgerald tapped a bloop single into right, and Munguia came around to score as the throw home was off line. Sean Roby followed with a two-run blast to left-center field, giving the Emeralds an early 3-0 lead.
Corry fell behind 3-1 on the first batter in the second, and induced a pop-up to the right side. There was miscommunication between the infielders, and the ball dropped in for a “double.”
Corry finally went to the curveball and gave up a run-scoring double. With one out, Corry gave up a long fly ball to right that Franklin Labour almost made a nice catch on. But Labour bobbled it and the ball fell for the third double of the inning. Labour fumbled with the ball some more as the runner came racing around third, and Labour fired home.
Auerbach initially missed the tag, but the runner also missed home plate sliding away from the tag. Auerbach then reached over and finally nabbed the runner on the wrist for the out at the plate.
Corry issued his second walk of the game, but ended the inning with a 79 mph curveball. It was an ugly inning with some hard contact off fastballs, but the Emeralds led 3-1.
Hits from Tyler Flores, Carter Aldrete and Munguia brought in two more Eugene runs in the bottom of the second.
Corry continued to rely on his fastball in the third inning, but it came at the expense of allowing more contact. Three singles brought in two Hillsboro runs, making it a 5-3 game.
Corry issued his third walk in as many innings, but recorded two strikeouts with some sharp curveballs. His curve is great when it’s on, but he’ll have to be able to consistently trust and command it going forward.
He gave up a single in the fourth, but a pair of long fly outs got him through the inning.
Corry came out of the game after just four innings, having thrown 84 pitches. He gave up three runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out three. The biggest takeaway was that he was relying on his fastball more to avoid the walks that have plagued him so much this season, but it came at the expense of giving up more contact.
The Emeralds tacked on three insurance runs in the fifth, with Labour hitting an RBI double and Flores hitting a two-run single.
Solomon Bates struck out the side in order for the Emeralds in the sixth, as he provided two scoreless innings in relief.
Bryce Tucker gave up a two-run double in the seventh inning, as the Hops wouldn’t back down. A run-scoring single then made it 8-6, yanking Tucker from the game after he recorded just one out.
Jasier Herrera came in and gave up back-to-back infield singles that tied the game. The next batter poked yet another single into right field, bringing home two more and giving Hillsboro a 10-8 lead. It was a seven-run inning as Tucker’s ERA went up to 9.93.
The game crawled by at a snail’s pace after some quicker games earlier in the series.
Herrera gave up two long fly outs in a scoreless eighth, clearly unhappy with himself despite the balls being caught. He wound up staying in for the ninth as well and pitching a scoreless frame.
Fitzgerald began the bottom of the ninth by demolishing one over the left field fence to get the Emeralds within a run. But despite a hard-hit ball by Roby, a competitive at-bat by Ricardo Genoves and a walk by Flores, the Emeralds fell just short. The final score was 10-9.
The loss evens the series at two games apiece. The Emeralds will look to retake the series lead on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.
