Eugene Emeralds Playoff Wrap: September 12

I’m just going to give you the bad news.

Eugene Emeralds

The Eugene Emeralds lost game 4 of the Northwest League Championship Series to the Vancouver Canadians (Blue Jays), 2-1. The Canadians claim the NWL title, 3 games to 1 over defending champion Eugene.

Ace Jose Albertos started this must-win game for the Ems and he did not allow a run or a hit over the first four innings. But in the fifth, Albertos walked a batter (his fifth of the game!) with one out and then allowed Vancouver’s first hit of the game, an infield single. After a groundout sent runners to second and third with two outs, Albertos gave up his second and final hit of the game, a two-run single by Logan Warmouth.

That was the final hit of the game for either team.

The final line on Albertos was five innings, allowing two runs on two hits. He walked five and struck out four.

Erich Uelmen pitched two perfect innings after the fifth and Jake Steffens was perfect in the eighth. Uelmen fanned three and Steffens struck out two.

The only Emeralds run of the game came on a home run by DH Michael Cruz in the fourth inning. Cruz was 1 for 3 with a walk. They almost stretched the lead to 2-0 in the fifth inning, but Jose Gonzalez was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on a Zach Davis single. Davis’ single in the fifth was the fourth and final hit of the game for Eugene.

Davis was 2 for 4 and Gonzalez was 1 for 3.

With that, the Cubs minor league season is over. I promise that I’ll be back in a few weeks with some Arizona Fall League updates, although they will likely to be weekly rather than daily updates. For now, I’m going to catch up on some much needed sleep.

I thank you all for reading and I’ll see you all again in April.