Giants Escape With 7–6 Victory Over Ports
The San Jose Giants held on for a 7–6 victory over the Stockton Ports on Thursday night at Banner Island Ballpark. The Giants took a 7–0 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning and then withstood Stockton’s furious comeback bid to secure the narrow win. The triumph snapped San Jose’s (61–50 overall, 21–24 second half) three-game skid and was their first victory of the series after back-to-back losses to the Ports this week.
An extra-base hit barrage fueled the Giants as six doubles keyed the offensive attack. Cole Foster (2-for-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI) and Scott Bandura (2-for-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI) both doubled twice and drove in a pair of runs to lead the way at the plate. Tanner O’Tremba (2-for-4) added a pair of hits while Diego Velasquez (1-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI) smacked his team-leading 28th double of the season and also knocked in two runs.
Manuel Mercedes (3–5) earned the win for San Jose after tossing five scoreless innings of one-hit ball in his start. Mercedes issued three walks and struck out six during his dominant 70-pitch performance.
Down 7–0, the Ports rallied for five runs in the bottom of the eighth against the Giants bullpen to get back into the game. Stockton then scored once in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull within 7–6, but San Jose reliever Cameron Cotter stranded the potential tying and winning runs in scoring position to seal the Giants victory. Cotter collected his fourth save of the season.
After scoring once in the top of the first on a Ports error, San Jose pushed across four runs in the third. Velasquez’s RBI double opened the scoring in the frame before Foster’s two-out RBI double extended the lead to 3–0. Bandura followed with another double as two more runs scored to make it a 5–0 contest.
The Giants then stretched their lead to 7–0 with a two-run top of the seventh. A three-base error started the inning before Velasquez knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly. O’Tremba then restarted the rally with a single and later scored on a Foster two-out double to push the margin to 7–0.
San Jose appeared headed for a comfortable win as following Mercedes’ brilliant start, Tyler Vogel entered from the bullpen and breezed through two scoreless innings. Stockton though erupted for five runs against Vogel in the bottom of the eighth to tighten the game significantly. Bjay Cooke led off the inning with a single before Dereck Salom doubled. A groundout from Will Simpson then plated Cooke with the first Ports run. Henry Bolte followed with an RBI single to bring Stockton within 7–2. After Bolte stole second and Jose Mujica singled, Myles Naylor connected for an RBI double as another run scored. Cotter was then summoned from the bullpen and the first batter he faced, Jonah Cox, reached on an error as Mujica scored to make it 7–4. Yeniel Laboy then singled home another run to trim the Giants lead to 7–5 before Cotter notched consecutive strikeouts of Robert Puason and Cooke to finally end the inning.
The Ports, however, kept the pressure on in the bottom of the ninth. With Cotter still on the mound, Simpson singled with one out to start the rally. Bolte then reached on an infield single and when third baseman Anthony Rodriguez threw the ball away for an error, the runners advanced to second and third. Mujica followed with another hit as his single scored Simpson to make it 7–6 while Bolte, the potential tying run, moved to third. Moments later, Mujica, the possible winning run, stole second, but Cotter managed to escape registering back-to-back swinging strikeouts of Naylor and Cox to seal the Giants victory.
San Jose won despite being out-hit 11–8. Giants pitching combined for 12 strikeouts, including four from Cotter over his 1 2/3 innings of work to close out the game.
The Giants play game four of their series in Stockton on Friday night with first pitch at Banner Island Ballpark set for 7:05 PM. Seth Corry is San Jose’s scheduled starting pitcher.
