Defense hurts Indians again in loss
Another costly error, another loss for the Spokane Indians.
The Eugene Emeralds (3-1) scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning and added two more in the top of the 10th to hold on for a 5-3 victory over the Indians (1-3) Friday night in Northwest League baseball action in front of a sold-out crowd of 7,053 fans at Avista Stadium.
The Indians, who have committed five errors in four games, carried a 2-1 lead through six innings before the Emeralds rallied to go ahead in the seventh.
Eugene catcher Luis Martinez pounded a stand-up double before Spokane lefty Derek Holland struck out designated hitter Luke Cannon. Brian Lauderdale grounded out to first before Luis Durango smacked a double to center, scoring Martinez.
With two outs, shortstop Ray Stokes popped a high infield fly, and miscommunication in the Spokane infield led to a dropped ball and an error charged to second baseman Renny Osuna that allowed Durango to score the go-ahead run.
“It’s funny because that was one of the fundamentals we worked on today … who had priority on that play – so we just got a little out of control and I’m not sure why,” said Indians manager Tim Hulett. “I’m one of those guys that doesn’t believe that any one play really dictates the game because we had eight other innings that we had shots at scoring runs. We sent three guys to the plate every time, we didn’t score runs and got hits – so offensively we need to put it together a little better than we did tonight.”
The Indians forced extra innings when Victor Barrios, whose two-run home run in the bottom of the first gave Spokane an early lead, drove in Kyle Murphy for the tying run on a single along the first-base line.
Stokes got things going for the Emeralds in the 10th with a lead-off triple and Danny Payne then scored him with a single. Payne went to second on Brian Joynt’s groundout and to third on Zachary Brown’s single. Payne scored when Keith Conlon hit into a fielder’s choice.
The Emeralds were led at the plate by Martinez’ two hits, both doubles. First baseman Zach Brown was 2 for 4 for Eugene.
The Indians pitching staff put together another decent night on the mound. Five pitchers gave up eight hits and struck out eight.
Starter Jose Jaimes, whom Spokane fans caught a glimpse of last season in three games before a shoulder injury sent him on a rehab assignment, struck out five and gave up one run in three innings.
“The pitching was good again tonight,” Hulett said. “If we don’t have that one mess up there (in the seventh), we maybe wouldn’t have been in the situation we were in the last inning where they ended up scoring two runs.”
Osuna, who hit the game-winning home run in Thursday night’s victory, went 2 for 5 and Barrios finished 2 for 4 with three RBIs.