For the first time all season, the Eugene Emeralds have lost a series to a team not named the Everett AquaSox.

They lost their fourth straight to the Tri-City Dust Devils on Friday, falling 3-1 in yet another poor offensive showing. They’ve completely missed out on a chance to take hold of first place in the High-A West.

Brett Auerbach, who was celebrating his 23rd birthday, led off the game with a single. He was caught stealing though, which proved to be costly as Armani Smith and Sean Roby hit singles later in the inning.

The Emeralds still struck first though, as Logan Wyatt and Franklin Labour led off the second inning with back-to-back singles, and Carter Aldrete drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly.

The Dust Devils bounced right back with a run of their own against standout right-hander Ryan Murphy in the bottom of the second, knotting it up at one apiece.

Murphy, who jumped into the MiLB strikeout lead with his fifth of the night, didn’t have much time to celebrate as he gave up a solo homer in the fourth.

He settled down, turning in what wasn’t his best start as an Emerald — but it certainly wasn’t bad, either. He pitched five innings, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks with eight strikeouts.

Tri-City added another run in the seventh after back-to-back singles and a wild pitch with Travis Perry on the mound.

The Emeralds got two more baserunners in the eighth, as Jairo Pomares singled and Wyatt walked. But Labour lined out, yet again capping a frustrating inning for Eugene.

After the first two Emeralds struck out in the ninth, Auerbach celebrated his birthday with his second hit of the night. Marco Luciano followed with another single. Smith worked a full count and put up a good fight, fouling off several pitches before drawing a walk to load the bases.

The red hot Roby stepped up to the plate. He laid off a couple close pitches, but popped out to end it. The Emeralds out-hit the Dust Devils 9-5, with Tri-City also making three errors, but the Emeralds went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. They’re now a ghastly 2-for-36 with runners in scoring position in this series.

Despite this brutal four-game stretch for the Emeralds, Everett still hasn’t run away with the division. The AquaSox lost their fourth out of five games, losing a doubleheader sweep on Friday, so the Emeralds are still just a half game out.

Meanwhile, the Spokane Indians have come out of nowhere to enter the division race, going on a torrid hot stretch to come within three games of first place.

The Emeralds will look to end their four-game losing streak and stay in the hunt for the division title on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.