10th Inning Home Run Sinks Giants
Inland Empire’s Cam Williams hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift the 66ers to a 5–3 victory over the San Jose Giants on Saturday night at San Manuel Stadium. After P.J. Hilson tied the game for the Giants with a dramatic solo homer in the top of the ninth, Williams won it for the Sixers in extras with the walk-off blast. Despite the loss, San Jose (56–45 overall, 16–19 second half) has still claimed three of the first five contests this week against Inland Empire and will look to take the series when their road trip concludes on Sunday.
Hilson (3-for-4, 2B, 2 HR, 2 RBI) had a standout night at the plate for the Giants with a pair of solo home runs and a double. He’s now hit three homers in his last two games and gone deep five times on the road trip. Alexander Suarez (2-for-4, 3B, RBI) and Tanner O’Tremba (2-for-4, 2B) also had multi-hit games for San Jose. The Giants out-hit the 66ers by a 9–7 margin, but went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and did not take advantage of their free baserunner in the top of the 10th inning.
Saturday’s match-up saw two solid starting pitching performances. San Jose right-hander Manuel Mercedes worked five strong innings with only one run allowed. Inland Empire’s lone run against Mercedes came in the bottom of the second as Ben Gobbel drew a leadoff walk, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Peter Burns’ two-out single to make it 1–0. Mercedes retired 10 of the next 12 batters he faced following the RBI hit to finish his outing. He walked one and struck out five during his 67-pitch performance.
Sixers starter Walbert Urena, a top 10 prospect in the Angels system, began his night with four scoreless innings. Urena breezed through two hitless frames to start the game, worked around a Hilson leadoff double in the third and stranded the bases loaded in the fourth. The Giants finally broke through in the top of the fifth though when Turner Hill led off with a triple down the right field line and scored on Suarez’s sacrifice fly to tie the game 1–1.
With the game still even, Darien Nunez relieved Mercedes to begin the bottom of the sixth. Nunez, who joined the club on Friday on a minor league rehab assignment, surrendered two runs on two hits in his only inning of work as Inland Empire reclaimed the lead. With one out, Jadiel Sanchez singled, was balked to second and took third on a wild pitch. After Gobbel walked, an RBI groundout from Denzer Guzman put the Sixers back ahead. Johan Macias then stepped to the plate and delivered a two-out RBI single as Gobbel came home for a 3–1 Inland advantage.
A pair of Hilson solo homers, however, would bring the Giants back. Hilson led off the top of the seventh with a home run down the left field line to cut the Sixers lead to 3–2. Then in the top of the ninth, Hilson again started an inning with a longball as he crushed a 431-foot solo shot to deep left to tie the game 3–3. The homers were Hilson’s seventh and eighth of the season — tops among all current Giants players.
Meanwhile, Tyler Vogel fired three hitless innings out of the bullpen for San Jose. Vogel, who entered the game to start the bottom of the seventh, fanned two in a perfect inning of work to start his outing. In the eighth, an error and back-to-back walks loaded the bases with two outs, but Vogel registered a key strikeout of Burns to end the inning and keep the deficit at a single run. Then after the Giants tied the game, Vogel returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth and promptly struck out the side in a 1–2–3 frame. Vogel fanned six over his three innings of work.
San Jose though was unable to take their first lead of the evening in the top of the 10th. With Diego Velasquez as the automatic runner at second base to start the inning, Onil Perez struck out swinging, O’Tremba popped out and Dilan Rosario struck out. Jorge Garcia then relieved Vogel to begin the bottom of the 10th with Inland Empire’s free runner at second base and saw Williams start the inning with a towering two-run home run to deep right center. The round-tripper was Williams’ third of the season as the 66ers celebrated their walk-off win.
The Giants are now 5–6 on their Southern California road swing with one game remaining on the trip. San Jose lost on a walk-off home run for the second time this season (May 21 at Stockton, 12–10 loss in 12 innings). The Giants dropped to 4–5 in extra-inning games this year (0–3 in second half).
The Giants conclude their series at Inland Empire on Sunday evening with first pitch at San Manuel Stadium set for 5:35 PM. Dylan Cumming is San Jose’s scheduled starting pitcher. The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com.
