Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008

Devils fall short in bid for sweep

By Kevin Anthony, Herald staff writer

It was Family Feast Night at Gesa Stadium on Friday, but the hitters for Eugene and Tri-City were the ones who seemed to bite off more than they could chew.

Both starting pitchers -- Christian Friedrich for the Dust Devils and Erik Davis for the Emeralds -- delivered on the high-strikeout, low-scoring matchup their recent outings promised.

Eugene's Daniel Robertson provided the game's only early offense, leading off the fourth with a triple to center field and scoring on a wild pitch. The Emeralds' bullpen made that one run stand up, and the visitors tacked on a couple of insurance runs in the ninth for a 3-0 win to avoid a sweep in the five-game series.

"We've been hitting the ball well the last four or five games, and today we didn't," said Tri-City manager Fred Ocasio, satisfied to take four of five off the Emeralds after watching his team finish on the other side of the same series score last month in Eugene.

It was the fourth shutout for the Emeralds (30-28) and the fourth time the Dust Devils (27-31) have been shut out this season.

Friedrich, coming off the first of what the Colorado Rockies hope will be many double-digit strikeout nights for the first-rounder, K'd eight before leaving when his pitch count hit 78 after five innings. He gave up just four hits and has struck out 27 in his last 16-plus innings.

The typical Eugene at-bat against Friedrich went something like this: Friedrich gets ahead 0-and-2 -- like he did against five of the first eight he faced -- before getting the batter to waive futilly at a two-strike curve that floats temptingly just out of the zone.

"It helps a lot," Friedrich said of all those favorable counts. "Getting ahead allows me to use all three of my offspeed pitches."

And the changeup he's added to the curve, slider and fastball makes it awful tough on hitters.

"He knows what he's doing," said pitching coach Dave Schuler. "It's tough to pick up a lot of his breaking balls. They break sharp and they look like fastballs."

Schuler added he wouldn't be surprised if Friedrich didn't finish the season with the Dust Devils.

Davis was almost as impressive. The 13th-round pick out of Stanford struck out six in 3 2/3 innings, giving up just one hit and two base runners before reaching his 50-pitch limit.

The right-hander has been effective in small doses this season, having allowed only one run in his previous seven appearances, through that covers just 12 innings. Before making his second start -- most of his work has been out of the bullpen -- Davis had struck out 24 in 16 innings while giving up just four walks.

Tri-City managed just three hits and four base runners in the game, with the last 11 batters going down in order.

The Dust Devils bullpen did its job until giving up a two-out, two-run double in the ninth. Sean Jarrett was lights-out coming into the game with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, striking out Eugene's No. 2 and 3 hitters to end the threat.

NOTES: C Jordan Pacheco was a late scratch from the lineup when he took a ball off the thumb of his glove hand in the bullpen before the game. Ocasio said the team will know today how serious it is. The manager also got a scare early when Johnny Bowden, who played for Pacheco, took a foul ball off his throwing hand. But he stayed in the game. ... Before going 0-for-4 on Thursday, Robertson had been 7-for-12 (.583) vs. Dust Devils pitching in the series. The Oregon State product went 2-for-5 on Friday and leaves town with a NWL-leading .373 average and 84 hits. Charlie Blackmon is second in hits with 72 and fifth in batting at .341.