Mistakes Plague Hops In Opening Loss At Tri-City

PASCO, Wash. --- A challenging 2023 baseball season was illuminated in microcosm Tuesday night as the Hillsboro Hops were undone by a litany of missteps and squandered opportunities.

The Tri-City Dust Devils (11-14 2nd half, 44-45 overall) took advantage of four leadoff base on balls, five wild pitches, three errors and two runners erased from the bases to defeat the Hops 6-1 Tuesday night at Gesa Stadium.

The Devils got another strong pitching performance from 20-year-old Cuban right handed pitcher Jorge Marcheco (2-0 at Tri-City in three games started, 9-3 overall), who blanked the Hops (9-16, 33-58) over six innings before surrendering a leadoff solo home run to fellow 20-year-old catcher Christian Cerda in the seventh. Down 3-1 at that point, Kristian Robinson followed Cerda's blast with a solid single to left, then advanced on a balk.

With none out in the inning and the tying run at the plate, Marcheco retired Junior Franco on a fly ball to left. After seeing two hanging breaking balls crushed and a loss of focus, Tri-City manager Jack Howell went out to make the change, summoning lefty Dylan Phillips. Phillips, a two-way player at Low-A Inland Empire earlier this year and last season at both low and high-A, has pitched exclusively for Tri-City since being promoted. Phillips didn't need a pitch to record the second out of the inning, wheeling around and picking off Robinson from second to clear the bases before retiring Kevin Graham on strikes to snuff the Hops threat.

Tri-City added insurance runs late and kept the Hops at bay to improve its overall record to a game under .500 on the season.

Yilber Diaz saw his season record drop to 1-8, lasting just three innings as leadoff walks in the first and third innings led to Tri-City runs. Diaz has pitched much better this season than his record would indicate, but his teammates have provided little support for him this year. After walking Tri-City leadoff batter Joe Stewart in the first, Diaz got Arol Vera to ground softly to third. Manuel Pena's throw to first was wild, putting runners at first and third. A strikeout later, cleanup hitter Matt Coutney hit a drive to the wall in left. Junior Franco was positioned well to record the out, but failed to make the catch. Ruled a double, Stewart jogged home with the first run of the game.

A line-out double play back to the mound kept Diaz and the Hops out of further trouble in the first, but the hard-throwing righty with the nasty hook again had to lie in the bed he made in the third after walking the nine-hole hitter D'Shawn Knowles. The speedy Bahamian raced to third on an errant pickoff throw, then tested his Bahamian buddy in right, dashing home on Vera's shallow fly as Robinson's throw was well up the third base line.

The Devils extended their lead to 3-0 in comical fashion in the fifth. Knowles singled, stole second, went to third on a Listher Sosa wild pitch, then scored when Sosa nearly fell off the mound on his delivery, spiking a pitch about four feet shy and two feet wide of home plate.

Meanwhile, Marcheco, a right hander with a fastball that occasionally crests at 90 mph, kept the Hops off the bases entirely in five of the first six innings. Robinson singled up the middle to lead off the second on a ball that whistled right past second baseman Adrian Placencia. But Robinson was gunned down at second trying to steal before Kevin Graham doubled later, keeping the Hops scoreless.

Down 3-1 in the seventh, the ugliness compounded as Casey Dana singled with one out, then sprinted to third when Knowles grounded to third and Pena's throw to second base hit Andrew Pintar in the midsection, somehow eluding the leather. Liam Norris got the final out of the inning after Dana scored on a ground out, then came unglued in the eighth with a walk, hit batter and two more wild pitches paving the way for two more Tri-City runs.

Hillsboro outhit Tri-City 6-5, but the combination of free passes and free bases added up to a 15-1 deficit, making a game lopsided that should have been close. Tri-City's only misstep in that regard was the Marcheco balk in the seventh as the Devils issued no walks, hit no batters and committed no errors.

Robinson was the only batter in the game with two hits.

The Hops will try to clean up their act Wednesday night in game two of the series. All six games will air live on Rip City Radio 620 AM with pregame coverage beginning at 6:50 p.m. and first pitch at 7:05.