Walk-Off Winners In 10 Innings To Close Out Homestand
The San Jose Giants put the finishing touches on an outstanding 12-game homestand with a 6–5, 10-inning victory over the Lake Elsinore Storm on Sunday afternoon at Excite Ballpark. After the Storm scored twice in the top of the 10th to take a 5–3 lead, the Giants responded with a three-run bottom of the inning for the dramatic walk-off win. San Jose (22–11) took five of six games in the series from Lake Elsinore and posted a 9–3 record on their longest homestand of the season.
Diego Velasquez (2-for-4, RBI) had a multi-hit game for the Giants while Tanner O’Tremba (1-for-4, 2B, RBI) smacked a key double in the bottom of the 10th before scoring the winning run on a throwing error. With the victory, San Jose has now won a season-high tying four games in a row and eight out of their last nine.
Sunday’s series finale was back-and-forth early with the Storm scoring two runs in the top of the second off of Giants starter Jack Choate to take a 2–0 lead. A walk to Anthony Vilar started the frame before Victor Duarte grounded a single into right — the only hit of the inning. After Chase Valentine’s sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third, Vilar would score on Jacob Campbell’s groundout while Duarte later came home on a wild pitch.
San Jose immediately answered with a single run in the bottom of the second as Thomas Gavello was hit by a pitch with one out before Jose Ramos blooped a single into shallow right. After a passed ball moved the runners to second and third, Edison Mora’s groundout to shortstop plated Gavello with the first Giants run of the day.
San Jose then scored two more runs in the bottom of the third to take a 3–2 lead. Alexander Suarez drew a leadoff walk and promptly stole second to start the rally. Velasquez then dropped down a sacrifice bunt and would reach first safely on a fielding error committed by Lake Elsinore pitcher Austin Krob. O’Tremba was up next and he hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Suarez with the tying run. After Matt Higgins singled and Gavello was plunked again with two outs to load the bases, Ramos drew a full-count walk forcing home Velasquez for a 3–2 Giants lead.
Choate finished his outing with back-to-back 1–2–3 innings in the third and the fourth. The left-hander was charged with two runs (both earned) on only two hits in his four innings of work. Choate, who was making his first start of the season, walked three and struck out four.
With San Jose still ahead by a single run, Julio Rodriguez was summoned from the bullpen to begin the top of the fifth. Rodriguez though quickly ran into trouble as he hit Wyatt Hoffman with a pitch to start the inning. After a wild pitch advanced Hoffman to second and Nick Vogt grounded out to move the runner to third, Samuel Zavala produced an RBI single into left to tie the game 3–3.
The contest would then remain deadlocked all the way until the 10th inning. San Francisco Giants reliever Luke Jackson tossed a scoreless top of the sixth in the first appearance of his rehab assignment with San Jose. Jackson, who is returning from Tommy John surgery, needed only nine pitches to set the down the side as the right-hander pitched around a one-out error.
Daniel Blair then kept the Storm off the board over the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Blair struck out two in a perfect top of the seventh before pitching around a two-out single in the eighth. He issued a two-out walk in the top of the ninth, but came back to strikeout Zavala to end the inning. However, the Giants offensively managed only three singles from the fourth through the ninth innings against Lake Elsinore pitching as the game went into extras.
Blair returned to the mound in the top of the 10th with Zavala as the automatic runner at second base. Rosman Verdugo led off and dropped down a bunt along the first base line that was misplayed by the catcher Gavello for an error as the Storm put runners on first and third. Blair came back to retire pinch-hitter Graham Pauley on a pop out, but then uncorked a wild pitch allowing Zavala to score the go-ahead run. After Verdugo stole third and Vilar drew a walk, Duarte hit a sacrifice fly to left plating another run to make it 5–3 Lake Elsinore.
The Giants though rallied in the bottom of the 10th thanks to a pair of clutch hits, a passed ball and a critical Storm error. With Suarez as the automatic runner at second, Velasquez led off with a line drive RBI single into right to immediately bring San Jose within 5–4.
O’Tremba was up next and he laced a double off the bottom of the fence in deep left center to advance pinch-runner P.J. Hilson, the potential tying run, to third with none out. Higgins was up next and he struck out swinging for the first out, but then with Onil Perez at the plate, a passed ball on the catcher Vilar allowed Hilson to score tying the game 5–5. One pitch later, Perez hit a comebacker that was initially mishandled by Lake Elsinore reliever Carter Loewen. Loewen would recover though to grab the baseball as he looked back O’Tremba to third, but then threw wildly to first for an error. As the ball rolled down the right field line, O’Tremba easily scored the winning run as Giants celebrated another walk-off win.
Blair (3–0) earned the win after allowing only one hit and two unearned runs over the final four innings. He walked two and struck out six.
San Jose out-hit the Storm by a 7–4 margin. The walk-off win was the Giants’ second of the series and third overall on their homestand.
Sunday’s game marked the midpoint of the first half with the first-place Giants currently sitting four games ahead of the Fresno Grizzlies for the top spot in the North Division.
Following an off day, the Giants embark on a 12-game road trip to Stockton (May 16–21) and Modesto (May 23–28). Tuesday’s series opener versus the Ports at Banner Island Ballpark is an 11:00 AM first pitch. The entire series against Stockton can be heard live on sjgiants.com.
