By: Joe Krasnowski
EUGENE, OR – The Emeralds sent the message Tuesday.
By promoting Diego Velasquez and Matt Higgins, the team sent a clear indication of its faith in its lineup’s newest additions.
Much could change between now and next week’s trade deadline, but for the time being the Emeralds are rolling with a young lineup of sluggers, one that includes four players that did not start the year in Eugene, and most recently includes Charlie Szykowny and Vaun Brown.
Szkowny’s long blast to right field opened the scoring Wednesday evening and keyed a much-needed early outburst in the Emeralds’ 3-1 win against the Spokane Indians.
The long homer three pitches into his Emeralds’ career wasn’t completely unexpected. Not with Szykowny promoted after hitting .340 in San Jose, and his 6’4 225-pound body touting muscles like risen bread. But still, his second-inning homer, which cleared the right field wall by plenty, served as a collective sigh of relief for the Emeralds and Giants collectively.
“It feels great,” Szkowny said. “Always great to be winning, this place is great.”
The victory was the Emeralds’ first of the series, and second since coming out of the All-Star break. It was keyed by Szykowny’s blast and a long two-run homerun from Quinn McDaniel in the fifth.
But Szykowny might have had the most effective performance — providing the kind of stress-free production, and quality at-bats the Emeralds will need from their young stars as they look to replace Velasquez and Higgins.
Indeed, there were other little ways the Emeralds won Wednesday night, improving their first-half record to 12-14, and moving seven games back of first place.
The back end of the bullpen was tremendous, as Daniel Blair, Matt Mikulski, Trent Harris and Cam Cotter backed up Jack Choate in the southpaw’s return from injury. Cotter perhaps was the most impressive, generating some wild swings after entering with two runners on and just one out in the ninth.
“Everywhere you go in this organization, the pitching is great,” Szkowny said. “Super fun to watch and play defense for.”
Although McDaniel, who blasted his team-leading tenth homerun, is well-known as the Emeralds’ slugger, Szkowny — who worked pitchers all night long, despite only adding the homer on the stat sheet — isn’t far behind.
“Time to keep the winning going.”
The Eugene Emeralds are the High-A affiliate of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants. The Eugene Emeralds are dedicated to providing the best in family entertainment and creating a fun, safe environment for everyone to enjoy watching a baseball game. For more information, please visit our website at www.EmeraldsBaseball.com or call the Emeralds front office at 541-342-5367. • Emeraldsbaseball.com • Facebook.com/EugeneEmeraldsfanpage • Twitter.com/EugeneEmeralds
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