Hops' Dramatic Victory Isn’t Enough

PASCO, WASH. (Sept. 5, 2024) --- Junior Franco’s top-of-the-eighth-inning heroics and a clutch save by Yordin Chalas led to a 2-1 victory over the Tri-City Dust Devils on Thursday night at Gesa Stadium. The tense victory kept the Hops’ slim postseason hopes alive… until about 45 minutes later, when Vancouver scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to beat Eugene, 4-3. The Canadians’ victory sends the defending champs back to the Northwest League Championship Series, where they will face the Spokane Indians.

It was a playoff atmosphere --- at least as far as the Hops were concerned --- throughout the Hops’ come-from-behind victory. For the third straight game, the Hillsboro offense came out flat, shut down by Tri-City starter Samy Natera Jr. (five innings) and reliever Stone Hewlett (two innings). But another great outing by Hops right-hander Jose Cabrera kept them in the game.

Cabrera --- named Thursday as the Northwest League pitcher of the month for August --- allowed just one run on five hits over seven innings, with no walks and six strikeouts. And for awhile, it looked as if that one run would be enough to beat him.

Hillsboro hadn’t had a runner into scoring position through the first seven frames. Kevin Sim, however, led off the top of the eighth with a double into the left-field corner. Tri-City reliever Roman Phansalkar tried to snap off an 0-2 breaking ball to Franco, and his wild pitch sent Sim to third. And on the next pitch, Franco pulled a liner into a right for a base hit to tie the game, 1-1.

At that point, Franco took the game into his own hands --- or, rather, his own feet. With one out, he stole second on the first pitch to Gavin Logan. And with two out and Tommy Troy at the plate, Franco broke early for third base. This surprised both Phansalkar and third baseman Mac McCroskey. McCroskey, Franco and the throw from Phansalkar all arrived at third base at the same time, with the ball sailing past McCroskey and down the left-field line. The error went Phansalker, as Franco raced home with the go-ahead run.

Troy walked and Manny Pena was hit by a pitch, but lefty Nick Mondak came out of the bullpen to retire Gavin Conticello on a humpback liner to second for the third out of the inning.

And so it was up to Chalas to save the game for his fellow Dominican, Cabrera. He struck out the first two batters he faced in the eighth, allowed a single to Adrian Placencia, but then retired Jadiel Sanchez on a weak broken-bat grounder to first.

The Hops went 1-2-3 in the top of ninth, setting the table for season-on-the-line baseball in the last of the ninth. Dust Devils first baseman Sonny DiChiara --- the burly former Auburn Tiger who broke Oregon State fans’ hearts in the 2022 Corvallis Super Regional --- pulled a hard ground ball into left field to begin the inning. Landon Wallace pinch-ran, and Juan Flores worked the count to 3-2. Wallace broke for second, avoiding the double play as Flores grounded out to Juan Corniel at short.

With the count 2-1 on Kevin Bruggeman, Chalas balked Wallace to third base. Now the tying run was 90 feet away, and the infield was forced to play in. Chalas, though, retired Bruggeman on a sky-high pop-up caught by Pena just behind the mound. Caleb Ketchup came up, and on a 3-1 pitch he flew out to Conticello in right field to end the game.

The Hops celebrated, then waited. And the news they received less than an hour later from Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver was not good. Eugene had the go-ahead run at second base in the top of the ninth with none out, but couldn’t get him home. Vancouver loaded the bases with one out in the last of the ninth. When Adrian Pinto grounded one to drawn-in shortstop Aeverson Arteaga, Eugene had a chance to get the game to extra innings. Arteaga threw to the plate for a force, and catcher Onil Perez fired to first to try to complete an inning-ending double play. First baseman Charlie Szykowny dropped the ball, then threw wildly to the plate as the winning run scored from second.

As Vancouver celebrated a return trip to the Championship Series, all the Hops could do was lament their missed opportunities. They simply dug too deep a hole at the beginning of the second half, when they were swept in a six-game series in Vancouver, and were as many as 10 games out of a playoff spot after starting the second half with just four wins in their first 18 games.

Since July 12th, the Hops have the best record in the league, 28-17. But the team that set a league record with six consecutive playoff appearances from 2014 to 2019 has now fallen short of the postseason for the fourth straight year.

Things do look bright for the future, as the Hops figure to have a good returning core next year, bolstered by talent from the Diamondbacks’ lower levels. Low-A Visalia, one level below the Hops, needs one win in their final three games to advance to the postseason. The Rookie-level Arizona Complex League D-backs finished as the league’s runner-up to the Dodgers. And an Arizona club in the Dominican Summer League went 36-20.

Hillsboro (32-31 in the second half, 67-61 overall) has three games left this season, and with three wins at Tri-City, they can get to 70 victories on the year. Tri-City is now 26-37 in the second half, 52-76 overall.

The fourth game of the six-game series will be Friday night at 6:35, with the radio pregame show beginning at 6:20 on Rip City Radio 620AM in Portland and worldwide at RipCityRadio.com.