Odd Homer, Good Pitching Lead Hops to Win in Everett

EVERETT, WASH. (August 17, 2023) --- Junior Franco hit a strange inside-the-park home run, and the Hops got solid pitching from Yilber Diaz, Ricardo Yan and Eli Saul in a 7-1 win on Thursday night at Everett Memorial Stadium.

The Hops (20-25 in the second half) have won back-to-back games, and they’re four games behind Everett (24-21) for the Northwest League’s second playoff spot, with 21 games remaining in the season.

Like the previous night’s 2-1 Hillsboro win, this one shaped up in the early innings as a pitcher’s duel. Raul Alcantara, Everett’s starter, entered the night leading the Northwest League in strikeouts per nine innings pitched, at 11.53. Hillsboro starter Yilber Diaz would have led the league at 12.32, but he didn’t have enough innings to qualify. The two pitchers didn’t disappoint.

Alcantara shut out the Hops through five innings on just one hit, with one walk and 10 strikeouts. Diaz whiffed nine in his four-inning stint, allowing one run on three hits. Everett led 1-0 going to the top of the sixth.

Mariners top prospect Cole Young fouled a ball off his own right foot or leg in the bottom of the fifth, and had to leave the game prior to the top of the sixth. Two batters later, his replacement at shortstop, James Parker, made a throwing error that opened the door for the Hops. After Wilderd Patino reached base on the error, Jack Hurley dropped a bunt single up the third baseline, and when no one covered third base, Patino hustled to third. Gino Groover smoked a single to right to bring home Patino, and Christian Cerda drove one to deep right for a sacrifice fly to score Hurley and give the Hops a 2-1 lead.

Ricardo Yan --- a reed-thin righty just up from Low-A Visalia --- had a strong Hops debut. He came on in relief of Diaz to start the bottom of the fifth, and worked four scoreless innings, allowing one hit, one walk, hitting two batters, and recording six strikeouts.

The Hops got him some insurance in the top of the sixth by virtue of a weird play. David Martin and Andrew Pintar led off the inning with singles, and Franco pulled a hard ground ball past Everett first baseman Tyler Locklear and down the right field line. Martin scored, and Pintar raced home behind him. Franco stopped at second, but deep in the corner, Sox right fielder Gabriel Gonzalez threw his hands in the air, claiming the ball had gone out of play. Franco came around third and raced home, with Gonzalez still holding his hands in the air.

If true, the ball out of play would have sent Franco back to second and Pintar back to third. Base umpire Ken Jackson sprinted out to right field to assess the situation, and signaled “safe” --- meaning the ball had not been out of play, and Franco’s inside-the-park home run stood. Three runs home, and a 5-1 Hillsboro lead.

For good measure, the Hops added two more in the eighth on singles by Hurley and Groover, an RBI double by Cerda and an RBI ground-out by Pintar.

That was plenty for Yan and right-hander Eli Saul, who worked a 1-2-3 ninth on just four pitches.

Everett hitters struck out 15 times, and over the past two games they’re 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position. The Aquasox scored nine runs in the fourth inning in the series opener on Tuesday, but outside of that, they have scored just four runs in the other 26 innings in the series.

The fourth game of the six-game set will be on Friday night at 7:05. Pregame airtime is 6:50PM on Rip City Radio 620AM and on the internet at www.RipCityRadio.com.