Kenny Castillo homered in his first two at-bats, drove in five runs and scored four more as the Hillsboro Hops crushed the Spokane Indians 14-6 on Monday, Aug. 24, completing a series victory and setting a franchise record for offensive output.

The Hops won the six-game set four games to two at Avista Stadium in Spokane Valley, Wash., taking the season series 16-14 against the Colorado Rockies affiliate. Over the final two games alone, Hillsboro pounded out 32 hits and 29 runs, both franchise records for a two-day span.

Castillo, the Hops' first baseman and catcher, launched a three-run homer to left field off Spokane starter Yuma Herrera during a six-run first inning that set the tone early. He went deep again in his second at-bat, then added an RBI triple and a walk. MiLB.com beat writer Matt Richert wrote that Castillo delivered "one of the best individual, single-game performances in Hillsboro history, which is saying something considering all of the big games Hops players had over the last two days."

Rookie Chris Katz kept rolling after his jaw-dropping professional debut Saturday, when the ninth-round pick out of Mercer University went 5-for-6 with a double and a home run in front of a season-high crowd of 6,814. On Monday, Katz singled in his first plate appearance to push his career start to 6-for-7, reached base twice more on hit-by-pitches and drove three other balls deep into the outfield.

Hillsboro built a 9-1 cushion through five innings on Castillo's triple and an Adrian Rodriguez sacrifice fly. Spokane trimmed it to 9-5 with two runs in the fifth off starter Rio Britton and two more in the sixth off Rocco Reid, but reliever Nate Savino (5-2) slammed the door with three straight outs with runners aboard in the sixth and a scoreless seventh.

Carlos Virahonda erased any comeback hopes with a grand slam off Ishmael Luciano in the seventh. Kayson Cunningham followed with a solo shot to right-center off Grif Hughes. Augie Mojica, signed away from the Boise Hawks by the Arizona Diamondbacks, made his Hops debut and held Spokane to one run over the final two innings.

The offensive explosion came at the right time. As we reported Aug. 20, the Hops entered the Spokane series seven games behind Vancouver for the Northwest League's final playoff spot. They shaved that deficit to six games after the Canadians lost 6-5 to the Eugene Emeralds on Monday, with Vancouver's ninth-inning rally falling short at P.K. Park.

Twelve games remain. The odds are long but not impossible: Hillsboro needs only to tie Vancouver or the Everett AquaSox for first or second place behind Eugene to reach the postseason. One wrinkle: if the Hops and Spokane finish tied, the Indians hold the tiebreaker on second-half head-to-head record.

The Hops return home Thursday, Aug. 27, to open a series against the Tri-City Dust Devils. First pitch is 6:35 p.m. at Hops Ballpark, with pregame coverage at 6:20 p.m. on Rip City Radio 620 and the Bally Live app.