Hoppers lose series, but need just 2 wins for playoff spot

LAKEWOOD, N.J. ― Here's the deal: The Greensboro Grasshoppers need to win two games this week to get into the postseason. That's it, and that's all.

But the Hoppers head into their final six-game series of the regular season this week against the Hudson Valley Renegades in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., on a four-game losing streak. The Renegades, meanwhile, have won three in a row and kept Greensboro's magic number at four.

Ben Pelletier hit a three-run home run and Nicolas Torres went 3-for-4 to lead the Jersey Shore BlueClaws to an 8-4 victory over the Grasshoppers at FirstEnergy Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Hoppers went 2-4 in this, the 19th six-game series of the regular season. Greensboro has won or split 17 of those series, and now faces one last series, a head-to-head matchup between the two teams chasing the second spot in the High-A East's best-of-five championship series.

Greensboro (71-43) leads Hudson Valley (68-46) by three games with six left in the regular season. The Hoppers need to win at least two games this week to clinch the playoff spot; the Renegades need to win at least five.

The Bowling Green Hot Rods (79-35) have already clinched the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage in the championship series.

The championship series begins with two games at either Greensboro or Hudson Valley on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 21 and 22. Thursday is a travel day to Bowling Green, with games Sept. 24, 25 and 26 if necessary.

Left fielder Lolo Sanchez stayed hot for the Hoppers, going 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, a run scored and two RBIs on Sunday.

Sanchez leads the league with 29 stolen bases, 54 walks and 75 runs scored. In his last 28 games, he has batted .356 (37-for-104) with 26 runs scored.

Will Matthiessen hit an RBI single, and Nick Gonzales drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Right-hander Santiago Florez (3-3, 7.56 ERA) took the loss, giving up five earned runs in three innings.

The Hoppers pitching staff took a hit this week when right-handers Carmen Mlodzinski, Tahnaj Thomas , J.C. Flowers and Garrett Leonard all went on the 7-day injured list Thursday. They were replaced by right-hander Steven Jennings, who was sent down from Class-AA Altoona, and Rookie leaguers Valentin Linarez and Jack Carey.

Notes

• The Grasshoppers have won or split 17 of 19 six-game series this season. Since splitting their first five series for a 15-15 record, Greensboro is 56-28 (.667 win percentage).
• Greensboro is 35-19 in road games this season, the fewest road losses of any team in the High-A East. Hudson Valley is 36-18 at home.
• Greensboro is 19-11 this season against teams that are .500 or above. Hudson Valley, which has played the weakest schedule in the league, is just 1-5 against .500-or-better teams (those six games were at Greensboro last week).
• Hoppers third baseman Jared Triolo leads the High-A East with 120 hits and 27 doubles. He ranks second with a .304 batting average and third with 75 RBIs. Triolo was batting just .217 on June 2, but in 80 games since then he has batted .327 with 24 doubles, 12 home runs, 60 RBIs and 23 stolen bases.
• Second baseman Nick Gonzales, the seventh overall pick in the 2020 draft and a player ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Pirates' No. 4 prospect, was the High-A East's player of the month in August. Gonzales got off to a slow start when he went on the injured list with a broken finger in May, and he was batting just .214 on July 15. In his 45 games since then, Gonzales has raised his batting average to .296 by hitting .347 (66-for-190) with 14 doubles, three triples, 12 home runs and 41 RBIs.