Giants Cruise To 9–0 Victory Over Stockton
San Jose pounded out a season-high 16 hits while Giants pitching excelled on the mound in a convincing 9–0 victory over the Stockton Ports on Saturday evening at Banner Island Ballpark. Every player in the lineup recorded at least one hit for San Jose highlighted by home runs from Alexander Suarez and Vaun Brown. Meanwhile, four hurlers — Keaton Winn, Nick Sinacola, Hunter Dula and Julio Rodriguez — combined on a four-hitter with 15 strikeouts as the Giants cruised to the win. San Jose (15–11) has now claimed three of the first five games in the series against Stockton.
The Giants jumped out early on Saturday scoring five runs over the first two innings to take a 5–0 lead. Grant McCray started the game with a double down the left field line — the first of eight extra-base hits for San Jose. Aeverson Arteaga’s fly out to right then advanced McCray to third before Adrian Sugastey was hit by a pitch. Garrett Frechette was up next and the Giants clean-up hitter produced a sacrifice fly to left as McCray raced home with the first run of the contest. After Brown singled, Yorlis Rodriguez bounced a single through the hole on the left side plating Sugastey to make it 2–0.
An inning later, Najee Gaskins drew a leadoff walk before Suarez stepped to the plate and crushed a two-run home run to straightaway center. The 415-foot blast, Suarez’s third homer of the season, stretched the lead to 4–0. The rally then restarted as McCray hit his second double of the game, stole third and eventually came home on Sugastey’s RBI single for a 5–0 advantage.
Winn started on the mound for the Giants and fired three scoreless innings with only one hit allowed — a second-inning double to Danny Bautista. Winn, who walked one and struck out three, retired nine of the 11 batters he faced.
San Jose would extend their lead in the middle innings scoring once in the fourth before a two-run top of the fifth. In the fourth, Arteaga led off with a double to deep left and came home two batters later on Frechette’s single up the middle. Then in the fifth, Gaskins doubled with one out and scored when the next batter, Suarez, singled. Then after McCray bounced into a force out, Arteaga laced an RBI double into the right center field gap to push the lead to 8–0.
Sinacola had relieved Winn to begin the bottom of the fourth and delivered a spectacular pitching effort out of the bullpen. The right-hander amassed a whopping 10 strikeouts over his four scoreless innings with only one hit allowed. Sinacola fanned two in a perfect bottom of the fourth to start his outing before collecting three punchouts in the fifth. He then struck out two more in a 1–2–3 bottom of the sixth. Sinacola returned to the mound in the seventh and after a strikeout to start the inning, issued a walk to Bautista. A strikeout of Pedro Pineda followed before Nick Brueser blooped a single into shallow left — the only hit surrendered by Sinacola during his masterful performance. Sinacola then came back to strikeout Greer — his 10th punchout of the game — to end the inning.
Brown completed the scoring for the Giants with a towering solo home run to center in the top of the eighth — his team-leading fifth round-tripper of the season.
Dula then pitched around a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth for San Jose before Rodriguez worked through a walk and a single in the ninth to preserve the shutout. The game ended when Greer went down swinging — the 15th strikeout for Giants pitching on the night.
GIANTS NOTES
Second Shutout: Saturday marked the Giants’ second shutout of the season. San Jose blanked Visalia on April 20 in a game that also featured the Winn-Sinacola pitching duo.
Sinacola’s Big Night: The 10 strikeouts from Nick Sinacola were not only a career-high, but also the most strikeouts by any San Jose pitcher in a game this season. Sinacola, who was credited with the win on Saturday, lowered his season ERA to 1.83 and has now struck out 32 batters in 19 2/3 innings.
Homer Happy: With two more round-trippers on Saturday, the Giants have now hit 11 home runs through the first five games in the series. San Jose entered the series with only 15 home runs for the entire season (21 games).
Hitting Leaders: Grant McCray finished 3-for-6 out of the leadoff spot with two doubles, three runs scored and a stolen base. McCray is batting .500 (14-for-28) during his current six-game hitting streak. Vaun Brown (2-for-4, HR, RBI) and Alexander Suarez (2-for-5, HR, 3 RBI) both homered for a second straight game. Aeverson Arteaga (2-for-6, 2 2B, RBI), Garrett Frechette (2-for-4, 2 RBI) and Yorlis Rodriguez (2-for-5, RBI) also produced multi-hit games. The Giants out-hit the Ports 16–4.
On Deck: The Giants and Ports conclude their six-game series on Sunday afternoon with first pitch at Banner Island Ballpark set for 2:09 PM. Will Bednar is San Jose’s scheduled starting pitcher.
