Giants Strike Early, Send Ports to 8-5 Loss
May 6, 2017 - California League (CalL1)
Stockton Ports News Release
STOCKTON, Calif. - The San Jose Giants plated six runs over the first two innings and the Stockton Ports never recovered on Friday night at Banner Island Ballpark. Stockton made a late push but ultimately lost the second game of their four-game set with the Giants by a final of 8-5 in a contest that took three hours and 23 minutes, Stockton's longest nine-inning game of the season.
San Jose opened the scoring in the top of the first. With two outs and the bases empty, Ports starter Boomer Biegalski (1-1) issued a walk to Bryan Reynolds and then back-to-back doubles to Aramis Garcia and Dillon Dobson to give the Giants a 2-0 lead. The Giants tripled that lead in the fourth. With two outs, Jalen Miller doubled and Ryan Howard drew a walk. Reynolds drove in Miller with an RBI single to right and Garcia followed with a three-run homer to left to give San Jose a commanding 6-0 advantage.
Biegalski was lifted after allowing the home run to Garcia and would suffer the loss, going an inning-and-two-thirds and allowing six runs on five hits while matching a career-high with four walks and striking out two.
Stockton saw an opportunity to eat away at the deficit fall by the wayside in the fourth. Seth Brown tripled to open the inning, Skye Bolt drew a walk and Trent Gilbert was hit by a pitch. Chris Iriart would single to left to score Brown and make it 6-1. With the bases loaded and still nobody out, Giants starter Heath Slatton (1-2) got back-to-back strikeouts of Mikey White and Santiago Chavez, followed by a flyout off the bat of Branden Cogswell to escape further trouble.
Slatton would go on to pick up his first win of the season, going five innings and allowing one run on five hits while striking out a career-high 10.
The Giants got the run back in the top of the fifth facing Dustin Hurlbutt, who'd set the side down in order in his first inning of relief. Reynolds opened the fifth inning with a double and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Dobson to get the Giants lead back to six runs at 7-1. It was the only run allowed by Hurlbutt in four innings of work. He gave up four hits and struck out five.
The Ports would inch closer in the seventh facing Giants reliever Carlos Diaz . With two on and two out, Diaz yielded back-to-back singles to Gilbert and Iriart that scored a pair of runs and made it a 7-3 game. They were the only runs allowed by Diaz in two innings of work.
San Jose got a run back in the top of the eighth without the benefit of a hit. Carlos Navas issued a leadoff walk to Johneshwy Fargas, who stole second and went to third when the catcher Chavez' throw went into center field. Fargas would score on a wild pitch to make it 8-3. The run was unearned and the only run allowed by Navas in two innings of work.
Dylan Rheault entered to pitch the eighth and faced the minimum in his first inning of work. Rheault came back out to start the ninth and gave up a leadoff single to Tyler Ramirez followed by a two-run homer to Brown that made it 8-5. After Rheault walked Bolt, he got Gilbert to fly out to left and then was lifted for Ryan Halstead (SV, 4). Halstead would give up a groundrule double to Iriart that put runners at second and third and brought the possible-tying run to the plate with one out. Halstead, though, would get back-to-back strikeouts of Mikey White and Chavez to close the ballgame and pick up his fourth save of the season.
The Ports and Giants play the third game of their four-game set on Saturday night at Banner Island Ballpark. In a battle of left-handers, A.J. Puk (0-3, 5.31 ERA) will make the start for Stockton, opposed by San Jose's Matt Krook (0-3, 12.34 ERA). First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. PDT.
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