Eugene, OR - Coming off two straight wins and leading after the sixth inning, the Eugene Emeralds looked poised to take the series finale from the Vancouver Canadians on Monday night, but a couple of late defensive miscues allowed 5 unearned runs to score for a 6-3 defeat in front
Eugene, OR - Coming off two straight wins and leading after the sixth inning, the Eugene Emeralds looked poised to take the series finale from the Vancouver Canadians on Monday night, but a couple of late defensive miscues allowed 5 unearned runs to score for a 6-3 defeat in front of 2,217 at PK Park.
Scoring got started for the Ems (2-3) in the third inning with two outs. Zach Davis drove a ball off Canadians starter Dany Jimenez that banged off the score board above the bullpen for his first career home run.
It looked like that lone run would be enough for Ems starter Matt Swarmer, who in his first career start allowed just a pair of base runners through four innings of work. In the fifth with one out, Norberto Obeso would break that trend with a moon shot of his own, launching a Swarmer pitch onto the PDA to tie the game 1-1.
Swarmer would retire the next two batters quickly after that and finish his night. He went five innings and gave up just two hits, one run and one walk while striking out five Canadians.
Jimenez was just as effective for Vancouver (3-2) as he allowed just the one hit and run for his five innings of work while also striking out five batters as well.
Eugene finally broke through when Jimenez did not come out in the sixth. Miguel Burgos got the first out of the bottom of the sixth before giving up a single to Davis and a double to Connor Meyers.
With the infield pulled in, Rafael Narea tried to shoot a ball back up the middle and Davis took off, but Burgos caught it on one hop. Davis briefly stopped and turned to go back to the bag but decided against it and was tagged out at home.
Miguel Amaya then stepped in after Narea was safe at first and Meyers advanced to third on the throw home. Narea took a big lead off from first when Burgos lifted his leg and had Narea picked-off. But play was stopped as Narea was in a run down and balk was called, scoring Meyers and giving the Ems a 2-1 lead.
Andin Diaz came out for his second inning of work after replacing Swarmer in the sixth. He struck out Javier Hernandez but the ball got away on a wild pitch. Bryan Lizardo grounded into a fielder's choice and Obeso appeared to do the same, but Diaz threw the ball away and both runners were safe.
Diaz would strike out Francisco Rodriguez before another error in the infield allowed Lizardo to score and tie the game 2-2. Kevin Vicuña would then single to make it a 3-2 ball game. When the dust had settled on the inning Andin Diaz had been relieved by Elvis Diaz and the Canadians had a 6-2 lead.
Andin Diaz finished with 1.2 innings, four hits and five unearned runs given up. Elvis Diaz closed out the game, going 2.1 innings with one strikeout.
The Ems got one run back in the seventh when Kwang-Min Kwon hit his first career home run to make it a 6-3 game.
Eugene hits the road and will play on Tuesday in Boise to take on the Hawks with a 6:15 PM first pitch. Listen live to every Ems game locally on 95.3 The Score FM or emeraldsbaseball.com.
