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 San Jose Giants

Giants Take Second Straight From Quakes, 7-5-5

July 18, 2014 - California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release


SAN JOSE - The San Jose Giants extended their home winning streak to a season-high five games with a 7-5 victory over the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on Thursday evening at Municipal Stadium. Brian Ragira's three-run homer highlighted a four-run bottom of the sixth as the Giants built a 7-1 lead before holding off Rancho Cucamonga late to earn the win.

Ragira's (1-for-4, HR, 4 RBI) home run was his team-leading 10th of the season while Chuckie Jones (2-for-4, RBI, SB), Blake Miller (2-for-4, 2B, RBI) and Trevor Brown (2-for-3) added two hits apiece for San Jose offensively.

Chris Stratton (7-8) pitched into the seventh inning to record the win for the Giants. Stratton finished his night with four runs (all earned) and nine hits allowed over six-plus innings of work. The right-hander struck out three and walked none. Bryce Bandilla earned his second save of the year with a perfect top of the ninth.

San Jose jumped out early with three runs in the bottom of the first against Quakes starter Jharel Cotton to take a 3-0 lead. Jesus Galindo led off with a triple into the left center field gap and immediately scored when the next batter, Jones, blooped a single into left. Brandon Bednar was up next and he lined a single into center and when the ball skipped past a diving Rob Garvey, Jones raced around third and scored the second run of the frame. Bednar ended up at third on the play after the two-base error. Miller then struck out swinging, but reached first on a wild pitch as Bednar remained at third base. Ragira followed with an RBI fielder's choice to shortstop as Miller was forced out, but Bednar scored to make it 3-0.

Stratton began his start with two scoreless innings, using a double play to escape a runners at first and third, one out jam in the top of the second. Rancho Cucamonga's Jeremy Rathjen then led off the third with a home run to left cutting the lead to 3-1. Stratton though came back to set down the next three hitters before working around a leadoff single in the top of the fourth. In the fifth, Stratton surrendered a one-out single, but quickly got out of the inning when Rathjen hit into the Quakes' third double play of the night. Stratton followed with a perfect top of the sixth to maintain the 3-1 lead. Stratton threw just 59 pitches over the first six innings.

Cotton settled down to allow just one hit over the second, third, fourth and fifth innings as the Giants were unable to pad their advantage. However in the bottom of the sixth, San Jose rallied as Jones singled with one out, Bednar walked and then Miller blasted an RBI double off the fence in left center. Ragira was up next and he crushed the first pitch of his at-bat over the wall in left for a three-run homer. The home run pushed the Giants lead to 7-1.

Stratton returned to the mound in the top of the seventh, but failed to record an out as the Quakes produced four consecutive hits prompting a pitching change. Aaron Miller led off with a triple to deep right center and then scored when the next batter, Chris Jacobs, reached on an infield single. Tyler Ogle followed with a double down the right field line moving Jacobs to third before Steven Proscia's RBI single made it 7-3. Mason McVay was then summoned from the bullpen and the left-hander induced the next batter, Farmer to groundout, as Ogle came home to cut the deficit to 7-4. However, with the potential tying run in the on-deck circle, McVay set down Rathjen on a groundout and struck out Dillon Moyer to end the inning.

The top of the eighth began with Rob Garvey tripling to deep right off of McVay (2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO) before Adam Law's RBI groundout to shortstop brought Rancho Cucamonga to within 7-5. The Quakes though would not manage another baserunner for the remainder of the game as McVay registered back-to-back strikeouts of Miller and Jacobs to end the eighth and then Bandilla (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO) fanned two more in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to seal the victory.

Cotton (3-7) was saddled with the loss after yielding seven runs (five earned) on eight hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out six.


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