Giants Lose Sixth Straight to Rawhide
June 24, 2017 - California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release
VISALIA, CA - Visalia's Justin Donatella fired seven scoreless innings as the Rawhide cruised to a 6-1 victory over the Giants on Friday evening at Recreation Park. The loss was San Jose's (30-42) second straight to begin the series and sixth in a row overall. All six losses during the current skid have come to Visalia.
Heath Quinn (2-for-4, RBI) and Aramis Garcia (2-for-4) had two hits apiece to lead the Giants offensively in defeat. All eight of San Jose's hits in the contest were singles with their lone run coming on a Quinn RBI single in the top of the ninth.
Jake McCasland started on the mound for the Giants and began his night with two scoreless innings before running into trouble in the bottom of the third. With one out, Galli Cribbs singled before stealing second. Following a Matt McPhearson strikeout, Sergio Alcantara stepped to the plate and grounded a double down the right field line that scored Cribbs for a 1-0 Rawhide advantage.
Meanwhile, Gio Brusa's single in the top of the second was San Jose's only baserunner over the first three innings against Donatella. In the top of the fourth with Visalia ahead up by a run, Dillon Dobson delivered a one-out single. Garcia then hammered a line drive off the bottom of the fence in deep left. Dobson advanced to third, however Garcia was thrown out at second by the left fielder Cribbs attempting to stretch the hit into a double. Quinn then flied out to the warning track in left center to end the inning.
In the top of the fifth, T.J. Bennett walked with two outs before John Polonius singled, but Donatella retired Jalen Miller on a come backer to keep the score at 1-0.
The Rawhide then scored a pair of unearned runs against McCasland in the bottom of the fifth to stretch their lead to 3-0. A walk to Daniel Lockhart started the inning before McPhearson singled with one out to put runners on first and second. Alcantara followed with a grounder into the hole on the right side that deflected off the glove of the second baseman Bennett. The error allowed Lockhart to score from second base while McPhearson moved into third and Alcantara was safe at first. Austin Byler was up next and he lifted a sacrifice fly into center plating McPhearson to make the score 3-0.
Donatella breezed through the sixth and seventh innings before a three-run bottom of the seventh for Visalia broke the game open. With reliever Connor Kaden on the mound, McPhearson and Alcantara drew back-to-back one-out walks. Byler then bounced an RBI single into left as McPhearson scored for a 4-0 cushion. Marty Herum followed with a line drive double into the left center field gap to bring home Alcantara and Byler extending the lead to 6-0.
The Giants' only run of the night came in the top of the ninth. A Ronnie Jebavy leadoff single and a Garcia one-out single put runners on first and second. Quinn then lined a single into center to score Jebavy trimming the Rawhide lead to 6-1. Visalia reliever Nick Baker though prevented further damage as he set down the next two hitters, Brusa on a pop out and Jonah Arenado on a groundout, to end the game.
Donatella (4-8) surrendered just five hits and issued only one walk during his seven shutout innings to pick-up the win. The right-hander, who faced only three batters over the minimum, struck out three.
McCasland (2-8) suffered the loss despite allowing just one earned run in six innings. McCasland gave up three runs total and seven hits during his stint on the mound. He walked one and matched a season-high with seven strikeouts.
Notes * San Jose's current six-game skid matches their longest losing streak of the season. The Giants also lost six in a row from May 12-17. * The current streak includes four losses to the Rawhide to end the first half before back-to-back defeats to Visalia to open the second half. * The Rawhide out-hit San Jose 10-8 on Friday. * McCasland has struck out 21 batters over his last three starts spanning 19 2/3 innings. * Michael Cederoth struck out three over 1 2/3 perfect innings of relief on Friday. * The Giants fell to 4-13 against Visalia this season. San Jose has been held to three runs or fewer in 12 of the 17 games. * Friday's loss dropped San Jose to a season-high 12 games below .500 overall.
On Deck The Giants and Rawhide continue their four-game series on Saturday evening with first pitch at Recreation Park scheduled for 7:00 PM. Conner Menez (5-3, 3.99 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Visalia is expected to counter with Bo Takahashi (5-2, 2.36 ERA). The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com with coverage beginning at 6:40 PM
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