Livan Soto RBI single brought Kyle Kasser home in the tenth with a one-run lead already in place.  They needed it.  The Tri City Dust Devils scored two runs in the top of the 10th and the Hillsboro Hops couldn’t match.  The Hops go down to the Devils 8-7 in an almost four hour game.

Eduardo Diaz Last Minute Homer Ties Game.

The Dust Devils were in control for the most part.  It left the Hops to play catch up, which they did.  In the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and the count 1-1.  Eduardo Diaz swung the bat and his home run flew over the fence and into the opposing bullpen.  The game went into extra innings with the score tied, 6-6.

The next inning, the Dust Devils scored two more runs and the Hops had to play catch up again.  They almost did.  Tristin English started on second base in the tenth inning and scored on Nick Dalesandro’s sac fly.  They had one more out to spend to get one more run.  It wasn’t to be.  Spencer Brickhouse’ fly ball wasn’t deep enough to reach the warning track.

Livan Soto RBI Single, the First

The game started out with Tri City making the moves.  In the fourth, Kyle Kasser and Livan Soto both hit RBI singles to score Gareth Morgan and Zach Humphries.  Three more runs came in the next inning.  Francisco Del Valle smacked a two-run double, scoring Carlos Herrera and Morgan.  Humphries followed with an RBI double of his own, scoring Del Valle.  In case five runs isn’t enough, Morgan’s seventh inning homer made it a 6-4 lead.

But, it wasn’t enough.  The Hops scored first when Dalesandro singled and scored on Axel Andueza’s RBI single.  Tri City called that and raised another run.  Then the pot just kept growing while the Hops struggled to stay close.  Jorge Barrosa doubled in the fifth and scored on Diaz’ RBI single to make it 5-2.  Two more runs made it 6-4 in the sixth when Blaze Alexander doubled and came home on Dalesandro’s RBI single.  Nick scored the other run on Cam Coursey’s RBI single.

Finally, the Hops caught up.  First run came when Dalesandro’s other RBI single of the game brought home Alexander.  That set up the stage for Diaz’s heroic, game-tying home run in the ninth.

Livan Soto RBI single, the Second

The pitchers took the brunt of the damage to go with sparse rewards. Yaramil Hiraldo was the only pitcher to not allow a run for the game.  Though Tyler Smith’s (W, 1-1) run was unearned.  Wesley Rodriguez (L, 1-3) was also the victim of an unearned run saddling him with the loss.  Though Rodriguez also gave up Soto’s second RBI single.

Hector Yan and Blake Walston both started for the Dust Devils and Hops respectively.  Yet, neither made it to the magical fifth inning where they could possibly qualify for a win.  You know it will be a high-scoring game when the hits (28) outnumber the strikeouts (12).

Standings

The win helped the Tri City Dust Devils (31-46) maintain their 19.5 game separation with league-leading Everett who also won tonight.  The Dust Devils gained on Vancouver and sit only three games away from fifth place.

The loss dropped the Hillsboro Hops (34-42) to 16 games behind the top.  They also lost ground on Spokane who are now two and a half games ahead of the Hops.  Hillsboro still remains fourth place, a half game ahead of Vancouver.

The next game between Hillsboro and Tri City will be the sixth and final game of the series.  Hillsboro holds the lead at 3-2 and hopes to take the series win Sunday.  The Dust Devils will try to earn the series split.  With the doubleheader last night featuring the make-up of a rain delay game from June, the two teams will actually play seven games this week.

Afternoon Game

Tomorrow’s game will be in the afternoon at 1: 05 PM.  You can watch it on MiLB.tv, listen on 620 AM radio or follow me on Twitter for half inning updates.  You can find my Twitter handle below.

Box Score

By

Greg Stoker

@GDStoker