Emeralds surge past Vancouver with 5-1 victory
There are the technical elements of baseball, the amount of times the Emeralds can get into favorable counts, the right pitches at the right times. There’s the offensive adjustments, recognizing pitchers’ patterns and furthermore adjusting. Then, there’s the enormous stress each player is under — his career resting upon each
There are the technical elements of baseball, the amount of times the Emeralds can get into favorable counts, the right pitches at the right times. There’s the offensive adjustments, recognizing pitchers’ patterns and furthermore adjusting. Then, there’s the enormous stress each player is under — his career resting upon each injury, at-bat, or outing — especially now with the draft looming.
It can be complicated.
Or, like the Emeralds showed in a 5-1 victory over Vancouver, it can be simple.
From Trent Harris’ 3.2 innings of relief, to rehabbing Wade Meckler finding barrels left and right, the Emeralds showed that some nights, luck is on their side, it really can be that simple.
The Emeralds had more hits (six to four) , more runs (five to one) and more contribution from their star players (keyed by Alex Suarez’s second inning home run) than Vancouver who entered on a torrid 7-3 pace over its past ten games and entered full of good vibes and momentum.
But for one night, all of that luck was Eugene’s side — almost.
The Emeralds’ initial plans were thrown array early with Jack Choate exiting after retiring just one out in his first inning of work due to injury. Of course, it can’t always be that simple.
Everything else for Eugene was as Ho-Hum as what could be wished upon. From Harris’ five strikeouts to a two-hour 23 minute game after a 35-minute first inning. The tumultuous first inning couldn’t have been farther from the otherwise routine Eugene victory.
The win moves Eugene to an even .500 in the second half, and five games out of first place in the NorthWest Division.
And when it’s seemingly mattered most, the team has came together at the right times. Perhaps no more so than for Tommy Kane who entered struggling, but ultimately turned a serious corner with a cathartic three scoreless innings in relief — a key mark in the Emeralds first win of the series.
Indeed, there were other proponents in the victory.
Most prominently, Julio Rodriguez set up Kane with two scoreless innings of relief, which, compounded by four different Emeralds adding RBI’s was enough for the victory. The Emeralds’ pitching staff struck out ten Canadians — yet another stat the team will hope to ride into a successful second half of the homestand.
Short Hops
Through six innings, the Emeralds had scored four runs off of just two hits — Vancouver had three errors.