The Eugene Emeralds are now just one game away from winning it all.
Wednesday night’s game took a completely different tone than that of Tuesday’s 15-7 slugfest. But the Emeralds put another one in the win column with a 3-0 victory at Avista Stadium, taking a 2-0 lead in the High-A West Championship Series over the Spokane Indians.
Conner Nurse was dominant on the mound for seven innings, and the game remained scoreless through eight innings. Ismael Munguia broke the ice with a go-ahead hit in the top of the ninth, and Franklin Labour added to it with a two-run double.
Nurse started the game for Eugene. He finished his regular season remarkably strong, especially considering how badly he struggled early in the season.
And he just kept rolling on Wednesday. He had to work around some baserunners, but he never let the Indians get a rally going. They didn’t get a runner past first base until the fifth inning.
Nurse made it through seven masterful innings on just 90 pitches, an impressive 67 of which were strikes. He allowed no runs on five hits and one walk while collecting eight strikeouts. It was his sixth consecutive great start, but this was perhaps his best one yet.
Spokane starter Chris McMahon held even with Nurse, pitching 6 1/3 scoreless innings of his own. The game was a complete tonal shift from Tuesday; the zeroes flew by, compared to the previous night when the Emeralds had already scored eight runs one out into the game.
Ricardo Genoves led off the third inning with a single, but was thrown out trying to make it a double — thus wasting a single by the scalding hot Munguia. The Emeralds also failed to capitalize on a one-out double in the fifth by Sean Roby.
With McMahon out of the game, the Emeralds slowly started to show some life. Labour and Munguia led off the eight with back-to-back singles, and each moved up a base on a Brett Auerbach sacrifice bunt. Armani Smith was intentionally walked to load the bases for Roby, who lined into an unlucky inning-ending double play.
Despite the soul-crushing missed opportunity in the eighth, the Emeralds kept their spirits up in the ninth inning with the game still scoreless. Tyler Fitzgreald singled, Marco Luciano walked and the Emeralds were in business once again.
With two outs, Labour finally provided the big hit both teams were desperately searching for all game. He singled to left field, putting Eugene up 1-0. Then, on a 3-0 count, Munguia doubled down the right field line, bringing in two more runs to provide the Emeralds a more comfortable cushion. It was Munguia’s fourth hit of the night.
Closer Chris Wright took the mound for the ninth, per usual. He recorded two quick outs, making the game look all but over.
After a two-out single, Wright went 2-2 on the next batter, putting the Emeralds a strike away from inning. But Wright lost him, issuing a seven-pitch walk to put the potential tying run at the plate.
He fell behind 2-1 on the next batter, perhaps trying to do too much with the victory so close to secured. But he settled down, ending the game with a strikeout and allowing the Emeralds to take a sigh of relief.
With a commanding 2-0 series lead, the Emeralds will look to avoid any drama and complete the sweep on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. for what they hope will be their last game of 2021.
