Visalia's Christian Beltre, Jeff Dietz and Billy Spottiswood combined to limit the Giants to two hits in a 1-0 shutout victory over San Jose on Wednesday evening at Municipal Stadium. The trio of Rawhide pitchers amassed 13 strikeouts with the Giants not picking up a hit after the second inning. The loss drops San Jose's second half record to 29-11.
Paul Oseguera (3-5) suffered a tough-luck defeat on the mound for the Giants surrendering one run on four hits over a career-high tying eight innings. Oseguera struck out five and walked none.
Visalia scored the only run of the contest in the top of the seventh inning as James Skelton led off the frame with a single before advancing to second on a passed ball charged to San Jose catcher Nestor Rojas. Konrad Schmidt followed with a bloop single into shallow right to put runners on at the corners. Kyle Greene then hit a ground ball back to the mound that saw Oseguera throw out Schmidt at second for the first out of the inning as Skelton remained at third base. However, the next batter, Andrew Fie, was able to pick-up the RBI when he hit a slow ground ball to second base. The play resulted in the Giants recording the force out on Greene at second, but Fie was easily safe at first on the fielder's choice as Skelton scored to make it 1-0.
Beltre (4-8) earned the win for the Rawhide pitching the first six innings with just two hits allowed. The right-hander walked four and struck out seven.
San Jose's only two hits of the night came in the bottom of the second on back-to-back one-out singles from Conor Gillaspie and Brian Bocock. Rojas advanced the runners to second and third with a groundout, but Beltre pitched out of trouble striking out Tyler Graham on a breaking ball in the dirt to end the inning.
The Giants managed only three more baserunners against Beltre as Darren Ford drew a leadoff walk in the third, but was promptly thrown out trying to steal. In the fifth, Bocock led off with a walk and was at third after two groundouts, but Beltre struck out Ford to keep the game scoreless. Then in the sixth, Roger Kieschnick drew a two-out walk, but Beltre struck out the next hitter, David Maroul, to complete his outing.
Dietz (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 SO) entered the contest in the bottom of the seventh and struck out five over two hitless innings. In the seventh, Gillaspie led off by reaching on an error and was at second base after a two-out wild pitch, but Dietz struck out Graham looking to get out of trouble. Then in the eighth, Thomas Neal reached first base with two outs on a dropped third strike, but Dietz recovered to strikeout Kieschnick to keep the Rawhide in front.
Spottiswood (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO) was credited with his seventh save of the year after working a perfect bottom of the ninth. The Visalia reliever made an outstanding catch of Gillaspie's line drive back to the mound for the second out of the inning and then struck out Bocock on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.
Oseguera was dominant throughout the first six innings of his outing yielding just three baserunners. Ollie Linton led off the game with a single before Oseguera set down eight in a row. Linton then singled again in the fourth before Oseguera once more retired eight consecutive hitters. Linton again broke the string as he was hit by a pitch with two outs in the sixth, but Oseguera quickly set down the next hitter, Taylor Harbin, to keep the game deadlocked.
Notes: The two hits for the Giants matched a season-low ... They also recorded two hits in a 6-2 loss at Stockton on July 3 ... San Jose was shutout for the third time this season ... Oseguera has not walked a batter in his last three starts (22 IP) ... He has worked eight innings in each of his last two appearances with a total of only five hits and two runs (one earned) allowed ... Trey Webb (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 SO) pitched a scoreless top of the ninth out of the Giants bullpen ... Visalia out-hit San Jose by a 4-2 margin ... Beltre had a 8.86 ERA (21 ER/21.1 IP) in his first five appearances (four starts) against the Giants before Wednesday.
On Deck: The Giants and Rawhide will play the rubber game of their three-game series on Thursday afternoon with first pitch at Municipal Stadium scheduled for 12:35 PM. Craig Clark (13-2, 2.68 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Visalia is expected to counter with Josh Collmenter (8-6, 3.78 ERA). It's a KRTY Country Thursday at the ballpark and tickets can be purchased by calling (408)297-1435 or by visiting www.sjgiants.com.
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