Seven-run fourth inning dooms Spokane Indians against Eugene

While the first-place Spokane Indians continue to fight back after a disappointing first half, it’s Curtis Terry who seems to be making the biggest improvements in the second part of the season.

The Indians slugger, who had fans in awe almost immediately when he won the Fan Fest home run derby before Opening Day, didn’t show much early in the season. Terry, who has collected 34 strikeouts in 36 games this year, dropped well below a .100 batting average a few weeks into the season.

While in Hillsboro last week, Terry said Indians hitting coach Chase Lambin talked to the players about making every at-bat count for the better of the team, rather than worrying about improving individual batting averages.

“Chase was like, ‘You need to play like you’ve got something special here,’ ” Terry said. Lambin’s talk with the team changed Terry’s perspective at the plate, Terry said, and took away some unnecessary pressure to get a big hit at every at-bat.

Instead, Terry said he now asks himself how he can improve the Indians’ game in any given situation.

“How in some ways can I affect the game for the better of my team, so we can win the game?” Terry said. “If it’s a walk and I take a walk, and I’m not selfish swinging at bad balls, that’s what I can do to help the team.”

“That just helped my game tremendously,” Terry said.

This mentality certainly helped Terry on Friday, despite the Indians’ 8-5 loss to the Eugene Emeralds at Avista Stadium. Terry hit a pair of two-run home runs – the first multi-homer game of his career.

“It was a nice day for me,” Terry said. “I got back to start doing what I normally do.”

The pair of homers wasn’t quite enough to get Spokane past the Emeralds, who rallied behind a seven-run fourth inning to snap the Indians’ six-game winning streak.

Indians starter Tai Tiedemann started the game with leadoff walks in both the first and second innings, but catcher Isaias Quiroz caught both attempting to steal second.

Quiroz got the Indians going in the third inning when he drew a walk on a full count. Eugene lefty Carson Sands hit the next two batters to load the bases with one out.

Newcomer Chris Seise, who averaged an RBI per game while playing in the Arizona League earlier this season, put the Indians (7-2) on the board with a sacrifice fly to right field. The inning ended on Tyler Ratliff’s second strikeout of the game.

The lead was short-lived. The Emeralds (5-4) rallied for seven runs in the top of the fourth inning behind a series of walks and a pair of three-run doubles to center field.

Singleton led off the inning and reached on an error by Indians second baseman Kole Enright. After a groundout, Brandon Hughes singled and Tiedemann picked up a strikeout to put two down with two on.

Tiedemann then lost control, walking two in a row to force in the tying run. The following batter, Amaya, rocked a three-run double to center to give the Emeralds their first lead of the night at 4-1.

Tiedemann (3-2) allowed five runs - none earned - on two hits and four walks with two strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings.

Manager Matt Hagan tried to mitigate the damage by bringing in reliever Ronny Carvajal with two outs and one on, but the righty loaded the bases on consecutive walks and then served up a three-run double to Singleton, extending Eugene’s lead to 7-1.

Righty Samir Vivas took over for Carvajal after the double and fanned Jared Young to end the rally.

The Indians narrowed Eugene’s lead to four in the bottom of the frame off on Terry’s two-run homer that barely cleared the left field wall.

Eugene added another run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly to left field that Austin O’Banion laid out for to make a terrific catch.

In the eighth, Terry added his second two-run shot - his seventh of the season - to cut Eugene’s lead to 8-5.

The Emeralds drew eight walks and tied Spokane with six hits.

“We didn’t make them earn it,” Hagen said. “We gave them free runner, after free runner, after free runner, and you’re going to beat yourself a lot of times if you do that.”

Indians center fielder Miguel Aparicio’s hit streak ended at 12 games after grounding out four times.

The Indians host the Emeralds on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in the third of a five-game series.