Blasts Help Ports to 5-4 Victory
August 15, 2018 - California League (CalL1)
Stockton Ports News Release
LANCASTER, Calif. - The Stockton Ports failed to take advantage of eight walks issued by Lancaster JetHawks pitching on Tuesday night, but two key swings of the bat erased the missed opportunities. Edwin Diaz and Viosergy Rosa each went deep for the Ports, homers that proved to be the centerpieces of a 5-4 Stockton win to open a three-game series at The Hangar.
Diaz opened the scoring with a leadoff blast in the second off JetHawks starter Ty Culbreth (5-7). Rosa stepped to the plate with one on and two out in the third and delivered a two-run shot to right-center to stretch the Stockton lead to 3-0.
Lancaster's lone run of the night off Ports starter Xavier Altamirano (4-4) came in the bottom of the third. Altamirano issued a leadoff walk to Wes Rogers who stole second and scored on a two-out single by Colton Welker to make it a 3-1 game.
Altamirano would pitch through the fifth inning and go on to earn the win, allowing four hits while walking two and striking out eight.
The Ports reupped their lead in the fifth as Chase Calabuig, Luke Persico and Rosa opened the inning with three straight singles with Rosa driving in Calabuig to make it 4-1. The hits knocked Culbreth from the contest and brought Juan Pena in from the JetHawks bullpen. Pena walked Diaz to load the bases but then got Greg Deichmann to hit into a double-play that brought in a fifth Ports run and made it 5-1.
Culbreth suffered the loss and allowed all five runs on nine hits while striking out five in four-plus innings.
Pena would pitch two scoreless innings and go on to work around three walks issued. Kenny Oakley would come on to pitch the seventh and load the bases on walks, leaving with two outs in the inning in favor of Salvador Justo who got the JetHawks out of trouble by getting pinch-hitter Brett Siddall to ground out to end the frame. Justo would go on to work 2 1/3 innings and work around one walk. Lancaster's bullpen combined for five innings and held the Ports hitless while issuing seven walks, none of which came back to bite them.
Brendan Butler took over for Altamirano in the sixth and issued a leadoff walk to Brett Boswell, who scored on a two-out RBI single by Alan Trejo that cut the Ports lead to 5-2. It was the lone run allowed by Butler in his lone inning of work.
Andrew Tomasovich came on to work the seventh and pitched into the eighth, where he gave up a leadoff double to Welker followed by a one-out walk to Vince Fernandez that put runners at the corners. Trey Cochran-Gill (SV, 2) came on and recorded back-to-back flyouts to escape trouble.
Cochran-Gill would pitch the ninth inning and, with one on and one out, give up back-to-back singles to Manny Melendez and Boswell with Boswell driving in Rogers who'd singled to open the frame, making it a 5-3 contest. With runners at the corners, Welker came to the plate and drove a ball to the center field warning track where it was tracked down by Calabuig, a sac-fly that scored Melendez from third and made it 5-4. With Boswell representing the possible-tying run at first, Cochran-Gill got Tyler Nevin to strike out swinging to end the ballgame and notch his second save of the season.
Welker went 4-for-4 for the JetHawks with three singles, a double and two RBI.
The Ports and JetHawks play the middle game of their three-game series on Wednesday night at The Hangar. Left-hander Evan Manarino (3-6, 5.91 ERA) makes the start for Stockton, opposed by Lancaster right-hander Logan Longwith (3-4, 6.94 ERA). First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. PDT.
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