They nearly blew it.
The Eugene Emeralds were up 7-2 in the sixth inning of Friday’s game and gave up five runs in nearly the blink of an eye. But Sean Roby saved the day, hitting a walk-off blast in the bottom of the ninth to give the Emeralds a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Everett AquaSox and bounce back from Thursday’s loss. Ryan Murphy kept on dealing on the mound, continuing his absolutely fantastic season.
The victory got Eugene back within a game of first place with three games left to play in the series.
For the first time, a 2021 Emerald was promoted to the major leagues, as Jose Marte was called up by the Angels earlier Friday. He pitched 6 1/3 innings for the Emeralds, giving up no runs on three hits while striking out 14 and walking none.
Murphy, the minor league strikeout leader, made his fourth start with the Emeralds after looking fantastic in the first three.
But for the fourth straight night, the Emeralds got off to a rocky start. Murphy hit the first batter on the foot, and a fielding error by second baseman Carter Aldrete set up runners on the corners with no outs. A single then got the AquaSox on the board before the Emeralds could record an out.
A second run came in on a long sacrifice fly, but Murphy settled down to keep things from getting ugly. The runs were his eighth and ninth allowed as an Emerald — yet amazingly, only three of the nine runs have been earned.
But the Emeralds got those runs back in a hurry. Utility man Brett Auerbach — playing catcher this time — led off the game with a home run just over the left-center field wall, and on the very next pitch, Tyler Fitzgerald homered to left field. Two batters in, the Emeralds had already tied the game at two apiece.
They weren’t done there, as Roby walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch and came around to score on a hard-hit single by Marco Luciano. Logan Wyatt hit a pop-up that fell between three frantic Frogs, dropping in for a “single” as “Mine! Mine! Mine!” blared from the PK Park loudspeakers.
With two outs, Aldrete and Kwan Adkins ripped back-to-back doubles to bring in three more runs and extend the Emeralds’ lead to 6-2, still in the first inning.
Fitzgerald led off the bottom of the second by beating out an infield single, and the red hot Jairo Pomares hit another single. With two outs, Wyatt smashed a single up the middle to make it 7-2.
Murphy settled in after his shaky first inning, retiring 12 straight batters. He looked especially locked in by the fourth, when he struck out five consecutive batters leading into the fifth.
His night ended after five innings and 84 pitches. He gave up two runs (one earned) on just one hit and one walk while striking out seven. His ERA as an Emerald is 1.21, and the rest of his stats are just as impressive.
The Emeralds’ offense quieted down too, recording a baserunner in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings but not putting anything together.
John Russell entered in the sixth and let the AquaSox right back into it, completely flipping the script on the game and putting the celebration on hold. After issuing a one-out walk, he allowed back-to-back homers to make it a two-run game. He followed by issuing another walk, then gave up another homer.
With the flip of a switch, the AquaSox scored five runs to tie it.
Austin Reich was lights out in relief, throwing three hitless innings with five strikeouts to hold the tie. It remained 7-7 as both teams went down quietly through the seventh, eighth and top of the ninth inning.
After Reich’s dominance, the Emeralds looked to win in walk-off fashion. Roby wasted no time, sending the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth over the fence in left-center field. The Emeralds stormed out of the dugout and piled on top of Roby while pouring Gatorade on him. They could breathe a sigh of relief as they held on to win and take a 3-1 series lead after initially blowing a 7-2 lead.
The Emeralds will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 5:05 p.m. With a sweep, they could vault themselves into sole possession of first place.
