Giants Victorious In Fresno On The Fourth
The San Jose Giants celebrated the Fourth of July with a 4–1 victory over the host Fresno Grizzlies in front of a sellout crowd of 11,302 at Chukchansi Park. The Giants never looked back after a three-run top of the first inning as Nick Sinacola along with relievers Esmerlin Vinicio, Julio Rodriguez and Hunter Dula shut down the Grizzlies en route to the series-opening triumph. The win was San Jose’s (46–30, 6–4 second half) seventh straight on the road.
Sinacola (5–5) earned the win after an excellent five-inning start. The right-hander surrendered only one run on four hits and did not issue a walk. Sinacola struck out five and retired 10 of the final 11 batters of his outing. Vinicio (2 IP, 1 H, 1 SO), Rodriguez (1 IP, 1 H, 2 SO) and Dula (1 IP, 2 SO) then combined to throw four scoreless innings out of the bullpen to seal the victory.
Looking to bounce back from a series loss at home to Modesto last week, the Giants jumped out early sending seven batters to the plate during their three-run top of the first. Back-to-back one-out singles from Aeverson Arteaga and Carter Williams started the rally. Riley Mahan then stepped to the plate and blasted a double off the wall in deep left center bringing home Arteaga with the first run of the game. Yorlis Rodriguez followed with a sacrifice fly to left as Williams scored to make it 2–0. Then Hayden Cantrelle’s grounder up the middle was misplayed by Fresno shortstop Adael Amador for an error allowing Mahen to score for a 3–0 advantage.
The only run allowed by Sinacola came in the bottom of the second. After Sinacola struck out the first two hitters of the inning, Juan Guerrero reached safely on a bad hop single to third. Guerrero then stole second and advanced to third when catcher Rayner Santana’s throw sailed into center. Braxton Fulford followed with an RBI single as Guerrero came home to make it 3–1.
Sinacola though prevented further damage in the second inning and then breezed through 1–2–3 third and fourth frames. In the bottom of the fifth, Fulford singled with one out to snap a streak of eight straight hitters retired, but Sinacola came back to strikeout Ben Sems and then retire EJ Andrews Jr. on a pop out to end the inning.
Vinicio was summoned from the bullpen to begin the bottom of the sixth with the score still at 3–1 and he went through the top of the order 1–2–3. In the seventh, Zach Kokoska hit a one-out double into the right field corner, however Vinicio quickly set down the next two hitters, Guerrero and Fulford, on back-to-back groundouts to retire side.
San Jose then pushed across a single run in the top of the eighth to stretch their lead to 4–1. Three straight singles from Williams, Mahan and Rodriguez loaded the bases with none out before a Cantrelle sacrifice fly to deep left center plated the run.
The Giants bullpen continued to cruise through the late innings as Rodriguez worked around a one-out single in a scoreless bottom of the eighth. Dula then fanned two in a perfect bottom of the ninth inning to put San Jose in the win column.
GIANTS NOTES
Mound Excellence: The quartet of Giants hurlers on Monday combined to record 10 strikeouts without issuing a walk. 22 of the last 25 Fresno hitters of the game were retired by San Jose pitching.
Inside The Box Score: The Giants out-hit the Grizzlies 10–6. Aeverson Arteaga (2-for-5), Carter Williams (2-for-5) and Riley Mahan (2-for-4, 2B, RBI) had multi-hit games for San Jose. Hunter Dula earned his fifth save of the season — tying him with Tyler Myrick for the team lead.
Sellout Crowd: Monday’s attendance of 11,302 in Fresno was the largest crowd San Jose has played in front of this season — easily surpassing the previous high mark of 4,371 on May 20 at Inland Empire.
Road Winning Streak: The seven straight victories away from home matches the Giants’ longest road win streak of the season. San Jose is a league-best 25–15 on the road this year.
On Deck: The Giants and Grizzlies have an off day on Tuesday and then resume their series Wednesday evening with first pitch at Chukchansi Park set for 6:50 PM. Seth Lonsway is San Jose’s scheduled starting pitcher.
