Hops Weekly: Second-half slide continues for Hillsboro who drops four-of-six games against Tri-City

The second half of the Northwest League season has not been nice to the Hops.

After finishing the first half winning eight of their last 10 games, Hillsboro is just 6-15 in the second half after dropping four-of-six games this past week against last place Tri-City.

The Hops managed to lose the series to the visiting Dust Devils despite batting .274 as a team.

In all, four Hillsboro players hit .300-plus, led by Manuel Pena who batted .455 in six games.

Unfortunately, while the Hops’ bats were alive, their arms weren’t, with their six starters allowing 28 earned runs over just 24.2 innings.

Hillsboro has four days off, then will travel to Everett for three games before coming home to host Vancouver July 23-28.

Organizational news and notes…2023 first round pick Tommy Troy continues to work his way back from injury, heating up a bit this past week, going 8-for-23 with five RBI in five games with the Hops…Hillsboro’s Jack Hurley is batting .356 with 10 RBI over his last 12 games…Andres Chaparro is white hotat Triple-A Reno, going 25-for-46 with four home runs and 18 RBI in his last 11 games…Reno’s Kyle Garlick has five home runs and 14 RBI in his last nine games…Amarillo’s Dylan File allowed one earned run while striking out 10 in a seven-inning start this past week…Rookie League pitcher Jose Castillo faced seven batters in two starts this past week, allowing one hit while striking out six and walking one…Abdias De La Cruz, also at the rookie level, was 11-for-22 with eight RBI in five games this past week…2023 N.L. Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll who’s struggled this season with the Diamondbacks, had two home runs and seven RBI in five games this past week…Former Hop Brandon Pfaadt allowed just three hits over six shutout innings with Arizona this past week.

Below are the recaps of last week’s Hops games:

July 9 — Tri-City 9, Hillsboro 4

Tommy Troy brought his game, but unfortunately for one of the very few times this season, Avery Short didn’t, and the result was a 9-4 Hops defeat to Tri-City on July 9, at Hillsboro Ballpark.

Troy finished game with four hits, but Short — who has an ERA of 2.87 this season — allowed six earned runs on eight hits in just 2.2 innings of work, with the bulk of the damage coming in the third inning.

The visiting Dust Devils scored seven runs in the third thanks to back-to-back home runs from Caleb Ketchup and Will McGillis to start the inning, and a total of seven total hits.

Hillsboro tried to scratch their way back with single runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, along with two in the sixth, the bulk of which came off of Tri-City reliever Roman Phansalkar who allowed three earned runs in 1.2 innings. But the hill proved too steep to climb as Dust Devil relievers Dylan Phillips and Luke Murphy locked the Hops down over the final 3.1 innings, striking out six in the process.

Every Tri-City starter had a hit in the game, while all but two Hops tallied hits.

Troy finished 4-for-5 with two RBI as he continues to work his way back from injury.

July 10 — Tri-City 7, Hillsboro 0

Tri-City might have the worst record in the Northwest League, but the Hops are making them look pretty good.

The Dust Devils hit the ball well, pitched dominantly, and ultimately breezed to a 7-0 victory over Hillsboro on Wednesday, July 10, at Hillsboro Ballpark.

Tri-City starting pitcher Chris Clark allowed just two hits in six shutout innings, then was spelled by three relievers who combined to hold the home Hops to a total of four hits, while striking out 10 over the game’s nine innings.

The Dust Devils got four runs in the second and three in the third, and were led by Landon Wallace who finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run-scored.

Hillsboro starter Jacob Steinmetz struggled over his four innings, allowing six earned runs on nine hits. The 20-year-old has labored in four starts since being promoted to the Hops from Single-A Visalia, allowing 12 earned runs in 13.1 innings.

Hops relievers Landon Sims and Zane Russell were a silver lining in relief of Steinmetz, combining to allow just two hits while striking out seven in five shutout innings.

Gavin Conticello had two of Hillsboro’s four hits in the game, going 2-for-4.

The loss was Hillsboro’s fourth straight and dropped them into a tie for last place with Tri-City in the NWL standings.

July 11—Tri-City 3, Hillsboro 2

For the second straight night Hillsboro was befuddled by Tri-City pitching, and as a result, for the fifth straight game the Hops were on the losing end, falling to the Dust Devils 3-2 on Thursday night, July 11, at Hillsboro Ballpark.

Tri-City starting pitcher Houston Harding allowed just four hits while striking out five over five shutout innings, then watched as Dust Devil relievers held on as the Hops made a late run at the visitors before failing to score the winning run from third with just a single out in the ninth.

The Devils got one run in the first and two more in the fifth, two of which were earned off of Hillsboro starter Roman Angelo who was solid for the most part, allowing just four hits while striking out eight over six innings.

The Hops tallied 10 hits in the game and were led by Manuel Pena who finished 3-for-4, but didn’t plate a run until Pena singled home Wilderd Patino in the ninth and later scored a second run on a Jack Hurley RBI-double. But Tommy Troy struck out with the potential tying run on third with one out, then Jose Fernandez grounded out to end the game.

With the loss, Hillsboro fell into last place in the Northwest League standings, a game behind Tri-City and 10 games behind first place Vancouver.

July 12 — Hillsboro 9, Tri-City 8

Trailing 8-1? No problem for the Hops who ended their four-game losing streak with a 9-8 win over Tri-City on Friday, July 12, at Hillsboro Ballpark.

Down by seven runs after four-and-a-half innings, the Hops got three runs in the fifth inning, three more in the sixth, and two in the seventh before letting reliever Alec Baker sew things up over the game’s final two innings.

Baker—in relief of starting pitcher Logan Clayton—allowed just three hits over 4.1 shutout innings.

Jean Walters had four hits for Hillsboro and was joined by Kevin Sim and Junior Franco with Multiple hits.

Chad Stevens was 3-for-4 with a home run for the Dust Devils who scored two runs in the second inning and six runs in the fifth.

July 13 — Tri-City 5, Hillsboro 3

A day removed from ending their five-game losing streak, the Hops got back to it, dropping a 5-3 contest to Tri-City on Saturday, July 13, at Hillsboro Ballpark.

The visiting Dust Devils got all five of their runs in the third inning thanks in part to two Hops miscues, to go with a Joe Redfield RBI-single and Caleb Ketchup two-RBI-double.

Hillsboro responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the third, beginning with a Tommy Troy RBI-single, followed by Troy stealing home on a throw down to second base.

The Hops got their final run on a Junior Franco RBI-single in the sixth inning.

Hillsboro starting pitcher Joe Elbis pitched just 2.1 innings, allowing five runs, with just two earned.

Joel Hurtado earned the win for Tri-City, allowing three earned runs on five hits over 5.2 innings of work.

Troy led the Hops at the plate, finishing 2-for-5 with an RBI and run-scored.

July 14 — Hillsboro 10, Tri-City 8

Despite dropping four-of-six games to the last place Dust Devils, the Hops ended their series with Tri-City on a good note, defeating the visitors from Washington 10-8 on Sunday, July 14, at Hillsboro Ballpark.

For the first time in the series the Hops scored first, getting three runs in the first inning, then watching as Tri-City twice tied the game over the game’s next five innings.

Hillsboro scored their second run in the second, got two in the fourth, and finally four in the seventh before hanging on over the last two innings.

Jack Hurley and Manuel Pena each had four hits for the Hops, combining to go 8-for-9 with our RBI and six runs-scored.

In all, Hillsboro had 13 hits in the game.

Tri-City had 14 hits overall and were led by Chad Stevens who finished 4-for-5 with a home run, two RBI and three runs-scored.