As the saying goes, baseball’s gonna baseball. And it baseballed all over everything last night.
There was an Emeralds runner called out for interference on the first base line when he dove away from the pitcher trying to make the play and swipe-tagged the base. I have no idea what the home plate umpire saw; the first base umpire called him safe.
There was a foul ball that fell in between three Hillsboro Hops.
There was Eugene’s go ahead run scoring on a balk.
There was the home plate umpire asking the first base umpire on a ‘did he swing’ call. It was a left handed batter. I’m still face palming over that one.
There was Eugene’s manager getting ejected in the fourth after the home plate umpire (who did not have a good game) ruled a swing and a miss was a foul ball. That was the inning after the blown call on the first base line.
And at the end of it, there was the very underdog Eugene Emeralds winning Game One of a best of three series. This win was about as big as big wins come.
Short Season A: Eugene Emeralds
Eugene 3, Hillsboro 2
The bullpen held Hillsboro scoreless for the final six innings.
Eury Ramos: 2.1 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 K
Eugenio Palma: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 5 K
Peyton Remy: 3 IP, 2 H, 5 K
Ivan Medina: 1 IP, 1 K
Grant Fennell: 1 for 3, BB
Levi Jordan: 1 for 3, 2B, BB
Jake Slaughter: 2 for 4
Fernando Kelli: 2 for 4
Other Notes
Fernando Kelli was on third and dancing towards home when the Hillsboro pitcher balked him home in the sixth inning. I’m not sure if a ‘forced balk’ is a thing, but if it is, credit Kelli with one.
Peyton Remy made his Northwest League debut last night. All he did was strike out five in three scoreless innings of excellent relief in a playoff game. Pretty good debut, I think.
Eugene’s pitching in general was pretty good in this one. Ramos struggled early, as we somewhat expected, but the bullpen produced six and two thirds innings of three hit, eleven strikeout baseball.
Eugene is now one win away from a trip to the Northwest League Championship Series. They lost in the Championship Series a year ago, three game to one. They won it in 2016, two games to one (it changed from best of three to best of five after 2016). That means the Emeralds are a win away from their third straight trip to the title series.
Interestingly, the Emeralds beat Hillsboro in the Semifinal round each of the last two years.
Tonight the game shifts to Hillsboro, and Eugene will have one of their best on the mound. Nineteen-year-old lefty Faustino Carrera finished the regular season with an ERA of 2.54 and a FIP of 3.63. He had a second half ERA of 1.63 and hasn’t given up an earned run since August 16. In his last outin,g he struck out seven Volcanoes while pitching six shutout innings on the road in Salem-Keizer.
The game starts at 10:05 PM ET. I believe Hillsboro is wired for MiLB.tv, so we may be able to watch (although we’ll have the Hops radio feed on the broadcast). Check in at game time to find out.
NEWSLETTER
