EUGENE, Ore. — Offense and defense, two things that have often been a bit sketchy for the Yakima Bears this summer, were no problem Wednesday night.

Opening a five-game series at Eugene, the Bears outhit the Emeralds 9-6,
including a three-run homer from Brad Miller, and they did not commit an error.

But the walks, the blasted walks.

Taking advantage of 11 free passes issued by Yakima's pitchers, Eugene had more than enough scoring opportunities en route to an 8-5 victory at Civic Stadium.

The Bears slipped to
7-16 but on the bright side they are 4-4 over their last eight games and none of the losses have been by more than three runs.

Miller, the stout first baseman who started the season on a tear before cooling off of late, announced his return Wednesday by going 3-for-4 with four RBI.

But the Bears' pitching staff — minus the solid bookend efforts by starter Edward Romero and Daryl Arreola — offered too many gifts as Chad Beck and Peter Duda combined for nine of the walks.

Romero handled the league's second-ranked hitting team by not allowing a hit in his two short innings of work.

But Eugene got to Beck quickly as Willy Crafort broke a scoreless tie in the fourth with a two-out, two-run single. The Emeralds then doubled that in the fifth inning with a four-run outburst, the big blow coming on Chad Huffman's three-run homer.

Huffman's shot chased Beck, who in 2 1/3 innings gave up six earned runs. The 6-foot-4 right-hander, who fell to 0-4, did strike out four.

Down 6-0, Yakima's offense woke up in the top of the sixth with a two-out rally.

After back-to-back singles by Joey Side and Cyle Hankerd, Miller belted his fourth home run of the season over the leftfield wall to cut the margin to 6-3.

After a pitching change, the Bears threatened again when Connor Janes singled and Jose Dilone was hit by a pitch. But reliever Stephen Faris ended the rally by striking out Shane Byrne.

Eugene got two of the runs back in the seventh when Duda suffered through a rough and bizarre outing when he yielded four walks and five wild pitches in two-thirds of an inning.

Miller added an RBI single in the eighth and the Bears pulled within 8-5 and had the tying run at the plate with two outs. But Rolando Valdez got Tito Cruz to fly out to center for the final out.