Early Homers, Stellar Defense Lift Giants Past Quakes
May 21, 2016 - California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA - Chris Shaw and Ronnie Jebavy hit early home runs and a wide array of stellar defensive plays led the San Jose Giants to a 4-2 victory over the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on Friday evening at LoanMart Field. The win was San Jose's fourth straight on the road trip and moved the club to a season-high nine games above .500 this season (24-15).
Steven Duggar (3-for-4) contributed three hits and had several standout defensive plays in right field to lead the Giants on Friday. The home runs from Shaw (1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI) and Jebavy (1-for-4, HR, RBI) gave San Jose a 3-0 lead after 2 1/2 innings before the Giants held off the Quakes to earn the victory.
Jordan Johnson (5-2) scattered eight hits with one run allowed during his six-inning start to pick-up the win. The right-hander walked three and struck out three. Rodolfo Martinez pitched a perfect bottom of the ninth inning for his league-leading 11th save of the year.
San Jose jumped out early against rehabbing Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu with two runs in the top of the first. After Ryu retired the first two batters of the game, Andrew Susac reached safely on a throwing error committed by shortstop Erick Mejia. Shaw then stepped to the plate and crushed the first pitch of his at-bat over the fence in straightaway center field for a home run. The homer was Shaw's team-leading eighth of the season.
The Quakes threatened in the bottom of the second against Johnson, but had a runner thrown out at the plate by Duggar to end the inning. With two outs, Garrett Kennedy walked before Pin-Chieh Chen singled. Mejia then grounded a single into right, but Duggar delivered a perfect throw home to nail Kennedy, who was attempting to score from second.
Jebavy then pushed the lead to 3-0 when he lined a solo home run to left off of Ryu in the top of the third. Jebavy's homer was his first of the season.
In the bottom of the third, Rancho Cucamonga produced a pair of singles to put runners on first and second with two outs, but Johnson induced Yusniel Diaz to groundout to retire the side. The Quakes then broke through against Johnson in the bottom of the fourth when Joey Curletta led off with a towering home run down the left field line. The solo shot trimmed the Giants lead to 3-1. Three batters later, Mejia tripled with two outs. However with Johan Mieses at the plate, Mejia attempted to score on a pitch in the dirt and was thrown out at the plate by Susac with Johnson covering home.
Johnson's only 1-2-3 inning came in the bottom of the fifth before he then had to pitch out of another jam in the sixth. A leadoff walk to Matt Beaty was followed by a single from Diaz to put runners on first and second with none out. Johnson though escaped with the two-run lead intact as he set down Curletta on a pop out, struck out Kennedy and then retired Chen on a groundout.
Jose Reyes (2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO) relieved Johnson to begin the bottom of the seventh and immediately ran into trouble. Mejia led off with a single before a single from Mieses put two on with none out. Tim Lacastro was up next, but he grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Mejia advanced to third and then scored when Kyle Garlick singled down the right field line. The hit brought Rancho Cucamonga to within 3-2, but the Quakes would not manage another baserunner for the remainder of the night. Reyes recovered to strikeout Beaty to end the inning before tossing a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth. The eighth inning ended with Duggar making a running catch on the edge of the warning track of a Kennedy fly ball to deep right.
San Jose managed only one hit from the fourth through the eighth innings before adding an insurance run in the top of the ninth. Consecutive singles from Duggar and Susac started the inning to put runners on the corners. Shaw then popped out, but Hinojosa followed with an RBI groundout to shortstop extending the lead to 4-2.
Martinez then needed only 10 pitches to work a perfect bottom of the ninth. Chen led off with a bouncer behind first that saw Jonah Arenado make a diving stop before throwing to Martinez covering at the bag for the out. Then with two down, Meises' shallow fly ball to right was caught by a sprinting Duggar on his shoe tops to end the game.
Ryu (0-1), who was making his second rehab start with the Quakes, suffered the loss. The left-hander allowed three runs (one earned) and three hits over the first three innings. Ryu struck out one and did not issue a walk. The Rancho Cucamonga bullpen then yielded just one run and three hits over the next six innings.
Notes:
* Friday was the first meeting between San Jose and Rancho Cucamonga since last September's Championship Series. The teams will play 11 games against each other this season.
* The Giants are 11-2 in their last 13 road games.
* Shaw is sixth in the league in home runs and tied for fourth in RBI's (31).
* The Quakes out-hit San Jose 11-6.
* Brandon Bednar's (0-for-3) hitting streak was snapped at nine games.
* Johnson leads the Giants and is tied for third in the league with five wins. He's won his last three starts.
* Ryu (shoulder) last pitched in the major leagues during the 2014 playoffs.
* Susac, who is coming back from a shoulder injury, finished 1-for-4 with a single in his first game with San Jose this season. He also grounded into two double plays.
* The Giants (24-15) moved into a virtual tie for first place with Visalia (25-16) in the first half North Division race. It marks the first time since after the first game of the season that the Giants own a share of the top spot.
On Deck: The Giants and Quakes continue their four-game series on Saturday evening with first pitch at LoanMart Field scheduled for 7:05 PM. Mark Reyes (2-1, 4.78 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Rancho Cucamonga is expected to counter with Yaisel Sierra (2-1, 5.14 ERA). The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com with coverage beginning at 6:35 PM.
• Discuss this story on the California League message board...
California League Stories from May 21, 2016
- Nuts Surrender Late Lead in 5-4 Loss - Modesto Nuts
- Giants Fall to Quakes, Win Streak Snapped at Four - San Jose Giants
- Quakes Use the Force on Star Wars Night - Rancho Cucamonga Quakes
- Sixers' Late Runs Crack Nuts 4-2 - Inland Empire 66ers
- Early Homers, Stellar Defense Lift Giants Past Quakes - San Jose Giants
- Cordero's Thunder Propels Storm - Bakersfield Blaze
- Gossett Masterful as Ports Blank 'Hide 7-0 - Stockton Ports
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
