Giants Fall To Ports, 6–2
The San Jose Giants suffered a 6–2 loss to the host Stockton Ports on Friday night at Banner Island Ballpark. Stockton starting pitcher Kyle Virbitsky struck out 10 over six scoreless innings in a dominant effort on the mound while the Ports built a 6–0 lead before cruising to victory. San Jose (14–11) and Stockton have now split the first four games of their series this week.
Grant McCray and Vaun Brown each smacked late solo homers for the Giants in the loss.
Both starting pitchers excelled early on Friday as Verbitsky and San Jose right-hander Eric Silva initially matched zeros on the scoreboard. The Giants put the leadoff hitter on base in each of the first three innings, but could not breakthrough against Verbitsky. Meanwhile, Silva began his night with two perfect innings and retired the first eight Ports hitters that came to the plate overall. Robert Puason’s two-out infield single in the bottom of the third gave Stockton their first baserunner of the contest. A Silva throwing error then advanced Puason to third before Denzel Clarke’s bloop double into shallow right brought home Puason with the first run of the game.
The Ports then added to their lead with a single tally in the bottom of the fourth. Kevin Richards singled with one out before Silva set down T.J. Schofield-Sam on a pop out to end his night. Esmerlin Vinicio was summoned from the bullpen and he allowed an infield hit to Jalen Greer before a walk to Pedro Pineda loaded the bases. Mariano Ricciardi then hit a grounder up the middle that shortstop Aeverson Arteaga fielded, but was late in attempting to force out Pineda at second. The play went for an infield single and an RBI as Richards scored to make it 2–0.
Virbitsky cruised through the middle innings striking out the side in a perfect top of the fourth before fanning two more in a 1–2–3 fifth. Arteaga led off the sixth with a single to end a streak of nine straight Giants batters retired, but Verbitsky came back to set down the next three hitters to quickly end the inning.
Stockton then broke the game open with four runs off of San Jose reliever Manuel Mercedes over the sixth and seventh innings. In the bottom of the sixth, Schofield-Sam led off with a double to deep left, advanced to third on a passed ball and eventually scored on a wild pitch. An inning later, Max Muncy drew a leadoff walk, was balked to second by Mercedes and scored on CJ Rodriguez’s single up the middle to make it 4–0. Richards then doubled to put two runners into scoring position before Pineda’s two-out, two-RBI triple down the right field line stretched the Ports lead to 6–0.
McCray broke up Stockton’s shutout bid with an opposite field solo home run to left center in the top of the eighth. Then in the ninth, Brown led off with a mammoth home run to left. The 435-foot blast cut the Stockton lead to 6–2, but the Giants would get no closer.
GIANTS NOTES
Home Runs: With two more longballs on Friday, the Giants have now hit nine home runs over the first four games of the series. Grant McCray and Vaun Brown each now have four homers this season — tied for the team lead.
Hitting Leaders: McCray (2-for-3, HR, RBI, SB), Brown (2-for-4, HR, RBI) and Aeverson Arteaga (2-for-4) all had multi-hit games for the Giants. Stockton out-hit San Jose 10–7.
On The Mound: Eric Silva took the loss despite pitching a season-high 3 2/3 innings with only one earned run allowed (two runs total). Silva walked none and struck out five. Esmerlin Vinicio (1 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 SO) and Jose Cruz (1 IP, 3 SO) had scoreless outings out of the bullpen. Giants pitching combined to record 15 strikeouts.
On Deck: The Giants and Ports continue their series on Saturday evening with first pitch at Banner Island Ballpark set for 7:05 PM. Keaton Winn is San Jose’s scheduled starting pitcher.
