Visalia's Ninth-Inning Run Drops Giants, 2-1
May 13, 2009 - California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release
Visalia's Kyle Greene singled home Collin Cowgill with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning lifting the Rawhide to a dramatic 2-1 victory over the San Jose Giants on Tuesday night at Recreation Park. In the opener of a three-game series, Visalia plated a single run in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the score before Greene's hit in the final frame propelled the Rawhide to a walk-off win. With the loss, San Jose's overall record drops to 19-13.
The Giants only mustered three hits in the contest - a new season-low. Nick Noonan (2-for-4, 2B) led the offense while Buster Posey (1-for-4) was the only other San Jose player to produce a hit.
Clayton Tanner was outstanding on the mound for the Giants tossing six-plus innings with just three hits and one unearned run allowed. Tanner walked three, struck out one and threw only 65 pitches.
San Jose scored their only run of the evening in the top of the second inning to take an early 1-0 lead. Angel Villalona began the frame by getting hit by a pitch before Thomas Neal drew a walk. After Conor Gillaspie advanced Villalona to third base with a fly out, Vladimir Frias bounced into a fielder's choice to third to score the run.
The Giants though would enjoy only three more base runners for the remainder of the night. Brian Bocock drew a leadoff walk in the top of the third inning, but was promptly thrown out at second base attempting to steal. In the sixth, Noonan doubled to the fence in deep left center field with one out, but was stranded in scoring position after the next two hitters were retired. Then in the top of the ninth, with the score tied, Noonan led off with a single, but consecutive strikeouts of Posey and Roger Kieschnick and a ground out off the bat of Villalona ended the inning.
Tanner began his outing by retiring the first nine hitters that he faced before Ollie Linton drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth. Linton though was quickly erased when the next batter, Taylor Harbin, grounded into a double play. Visalia still mounted a threat in the inning when Ryne White singled with two outs before Cowgill was hit by a pitch, but Tanner worked out of the jam by inducing the next hitter, Ed Easley, to fly out.
Tanner needed only four pitches to retire the Rawhide in the fifth before a stressful bottom of the sixth inning. After two quick outs, Harbin drew a walk before White singled into right field to put runners on the corners. Tanner though got Cowgill to ground out to shortstop on a routine play to keep the Giants ahead by a 1-0 score.
In the bottom of the seventh, Tanner issued a leadoff walk to Easley prompting a pitching change as Daniel Turpen was summoned from the bullpen. Turpen quickly struck out the next two hitters, but a passed ball on Posey advanced Easley to second base. Eli Rumler followed with a bloop single into shallow center field to score Easley as Visalia drew even at 1-1.
Turpen worked through a two-out single in the bottom of the eighth to keep the score tied before Edwin Quirarte entered the contest to begin the ninth. Cowgill led off the bottom of the ninth inning by drilling a ball over the head of Shane Jordan in center field for a triple putting the potential winning run only 90 feet from scoring with none out. Quirarte rebounded to retire Easley on a ground out to Bocock at shortstop, but then Greene stepped to the plate and smoked a 2-2 pitch back up the middle for the game-winning hit.
Quirarte (0-2) suffered the loss after surrendering the ninth-inning run.
Jordan Norberto (3-0) was credited with the victory out of the Rawhide bullpen. Norberto recorded the final two outs of the top of the ninth inning after brilliant performances from Bryan Shaw (6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO) and Jeff Dietz (2 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO).
Notes: The Rawhide out-hit the Giants by a 7-3 margin ... Tuesday marked the first meeting of the season between San Jose and Visalia ... The Giants' two-game winning streak was snapped ... San Jose has not won three in a row since April 18-20 ... Neal (0-for-2, BB) saw his 12-game hitting streak come to an end ... Tanner, who lowered his ERA to 2.28, has not allowed an earned run over his last two starts (11 innings) ... Quirarte surrendered his first earned run of the season (8 1/3 IP) ... The Giants lost for just the second time this season when carrying a lead into the seventh inning (18-2) ... San Jose is 4-3 on their season-long 13-game road trip ... The Giants fell four games behind Visalia (23-9) for the top spot in the first half North Division.
On Deck: The Giants and Rawhide continue their three-game series on Wednesday afternoon with first pitch at Recreation Park scheduled for 3:05 PM. Craig Clark (1-2, 4.88 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Visalia is expected to counter with Trevor Harden (0-0, 0.00 ERA). The game can be heard live on www.sjgiants.com.
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