What to know about the final week of the Vancouver Canadians season

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Jace Bohrofen, Jackson Hornung and Charlie Condon are just a few of the names to watch when the Vancouver Canadians close out the Northwest League regular season this week at Nat Bailey Stadium.

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Before Tuesday’s game, Vancouver had a three-point lead over Hillsboro Hops in the fight for a playoff spot.

The C’s final six-game second-half series was set to begin Tuesday night against the visiting Eugene Emeralds. The final day of the regular season is Sunday, when the C’s and Emeralds will face off in a 1:05 p.m. game at Nat.

Vancouver general manager Allan Bailey said Tuesday morning that tickets are available for all games, but Saturday and Sunday are sold out.

If Vancouver qualifies for the playoffs, a best-of-five league series with the Spokane Indians will begin Sept. 10 at Nat. Game 2 will also be Sept. 11. Tickets are on sale now on the C’s website. The series will move to Spokane for Game 3 on Friday.

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Hillsboro will finish the regular season on the road with a six-game road trip against the Tri-City Dust Devils, which also begins Tuesday.

The C’s, the farm team of the Toronto Blue Jays of the top A league, are the current champions of the Northwest League and lost in the final in 2022.

Here are some threads for this week:

Spokane Indians can win both halves

The second-place C (34-26) entered Tuesday trailing the leaderless Spokane Indians (38-23) by three and a half games in the second half of the season and had a three-point lead over third-place Hillsboro (31-29).

Spokane, an affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, has already qualified for the best-of-five league championship by winning the first half. If they also win the second-half banner, the second-place team from that half will join them in the playoffs.

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The Northwest League is a six-team league.

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While Vancouver will face Eugene (24-36), Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate Hillsboro will face Tri-City (23-36) and Spokane will face the Everett AquaSox (30-31) to conclude the league play.

Vancouver lost five of six games in Hillsboro last week, tightening the playoff race and narrowing the margin for error. They won four of six games in Eugene at Nat earlier this year. Vancouver is 19-11 at home in the second half this season, compared to 15-15 on the road.

Jays prospect Jace Bohrofen ranks fourth in homeruns

Bohrofen, 22, is an outfielder from Vancouver who entered Tuesday ranked fourth in the league in home runs (13) and eighth in RBIs (55). He had a .252 average entering the day. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound left-handed hitter was selected in the sixth round of the 2023 draft by the Blue Jays out of the University of Arkansas.

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According to MLB Pipeline, he is the Blue Jays’ No. 26 prospect. His MLB Pipeline scouting report calls him one of the “more promising power hitters beyond the level of Orelvis Martinez and Arjun Nimmala” among the Blue Jays prospects.

Great second half for Jackson Hornung

Bohrofen shined in August, hitting .368 with six homeruns and 24 RBIs in 23 games. Hornung, 23, was another Vancouver player whose play picked up in the second half. He hit .326 with one homerun and 17 RBIs in 23 games in August.

Entering Tuesday, he is batting .253 with six homeruns and 43 RBI for Vancouver this season. He was a 16th-round pick in the 2023 draft by the Blue Jays out of Skidmore College, and the 6-foot-1, 215-pound right-handed hitter has seen action at catcher, first base and in left field with the C’s this season.

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One of MLB’s top prospects plays for Spokane

If Vancouver advances to the finals, C’s fans will have a chance to see Condon, a 21-year-old third baseman/outfielder who is ranked 11th on MLB Pipeline’s 100 Greatest Minor League Players list. He is also ranked 4th on the league’s 10 Greatest Players list and the Rockies’ No. 1 prospect.

The 6-foot-6, 216-pound right-handed hitter was the third overall pick in this summer’s MLB amateur draft, selected by the Rockies out of the University of Georgia. He had a modest start to his professional career, batting .193 with one homerun and nine RBIs in 21 games with Spokane before Tuesday.

Spokane also has third baseman Kyle Karros, 22, who led the Northwest League in hits (.307) and RBIs (75) and was tied for second in home runs (14) before Tuesday. He is the son of longtime Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Eric Karros.

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Emeralds have Giants’ top prospect

Eugene is the San Francisco Giants’ farm team, and the Emeralds are home to MLB Pipeline’s top prospect in 19-year-old first baseman Bryce Eldridge.

The 6-foot-7, 223-pound left-handed hitter entered Tuesday sharing eighth in the league in homeruns (12), despite starting the season with the Single-A San Jose Giants. Eldridge had 173 hits in the Northwest League before Tuesday. By comparison, Karros had 456.

In 48 games with Eugene, Eldridge has a .335 average with 41 RBI. In his two stops this season, he has a .296 average with 22 homeruns and 86 RBI in 99 games as of Tuesday morning.

The Giants selected him 16th overall in the 2023 draft. He graduated from high school in Virginia.

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@SteveEwen

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