By: Joe Krasnowski
EUGENE, OR – Either it’s a hurdle or a wall, Eugene couldn’t be sure.
Now it is.
The Everett AquaSox have Eugene’s number, one team controlling all meaningful margins of the game. With the other squandering what minimal opportunities they did have.
The Exploding Whales’ 8-5 loss, their fifth in a row against Everett, on Sunday night exposed so many of the problems that have haunted them against the AquaSox, who have too much talent. Too much speed. Too much toughness.
For the Whales, too many questions without answers.
What to make of the offense’s cold-showing of late — the team entered scoring three or less runs in all four of its previous losses this series. They don’t know, mustering just three at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Why has the team played so poorly of late, even with head coach Jeremiah Knackstedt’s team-warranted week off? Unclear, incoming losses by an average of 3.5 runs doesn’t scream “one tactical adjustment away” does it.
And what to make of the team’s 14-4 start? Now with the squad eliminated from Postseason contention after opening the series just a game out of first place.
Eugene entered this week’s series a mere game out of first place, and now sit six games out, dropping to third place for the first time all year. The loss ends their first half playoff dreams.
It was the kind of collapse that sinks playoff runs, sends a club hurtling into a road-trip, and haunts a team for a long time.
There were other little ways Eugene lost Sunday, falling in the finale of a 1-5 homestand.
Trevor McDonald grinded through his start, continually falling behind hitters because of poor fastball command and execution of his secondary pitches. He was tagged for three first-inning runs, two of which came via solo shots.
With a “B Team” lineup on a Sunday get away day, Eugene knotted the score at three in the bottom of the first, but mustered just five hits on the day.
And after Everett tacked on two more — aided by a pair of Eugene errors — in the fifth, Eugene never had multiple runners on base.
Maybe any other month of the Milb season, any other moment, and a night like Sunday could be written off as an unavoidable occurrence.
When you have 132 games on the schedule, there are going to be nights when your legs are too heavy, your brain is too foggy and the strike zone too tight.
It happens on nights like this for teams, the sixth game in as many nights, the bus miles and the on-field minutes piling up. But when you’re where Eugene was entering Sunday, that stuff can’t get in the way.
The team had to win, then sweep six games against Spokane to keep their playoff dreams alive. Outlandish? Maybe. But it’s a shame the team will never even get that chance.
The first half began with Eugene looking to soar back to past heights. It ended with the team falling flat on its face, stumbling on whatever roadblocks presented of late.
Short hops
Victor Labrada homered in the first, rounding the bases with his arm spread wide in celebration. The AquaSox bullpen celebrated by hopping on the bullpen wall and “rowing the boat” — the vibes were bad for Eugene then, and were all week long.
In the second Garrett Frechette hit a long fly to right, that went just foul. On the next pitch he hit a blooper just foul to left. Then, I kid you not, he struck out looking on a fastball just off the plate.
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