CalL San Jose Giants

Giants Even Series In Modesto With 6-2 Victory

Published on August 27, 2022 under California League (CalL)
San Jose Giants News Release


The San Jose Giants evened their series in Modesto with a 6-2 victory over the Nuts on Friday night at John Thurman Field. Trevor McDonald tossed five strong innings in his start, Jose Cruz was excellent in long relief and three extra-base hits keyed the Giants offensively in the win. San Jose (65-53, 25-27 second half) and Modesto have now split the first four games of their crucial series this week.

McDonald (6-3) earned the win after limiting the Nuts to a pair of runs during his five-inning performance. He gave up four hits, walked three and struck out four. Cruz then faced the minimum nine hitters over his three scoreless innings out of the bullpen before Ben Madison closed out Modesto with a perfect bottom of the ninth.

The Giants never trailed on Friday as a two-run top of the first give San Jose the lead before the Nuts came to bat. Hayden Cantrelle led off the game with a triple to deep right center field and immediately scored when the next batter, Aeverson Arteaga, grounded a single into left. Arteaga was eventually at second base with two outs and would score the second run of the inning after Nuts starter Sam Carlson uncorked back-to-back wild pitches.

McDonald breezed through the first two innings yielding only one single while registering four strikeouts before the Giants added to their lead with a two-run top of the third. Back-to-back singles from Rayner Santana and Cantrelle started the rally before Victor Bericoto's one-out RBI single up the middle made it a 3-0 game. Yorlis Rodriguez followed by drawing a walk to load the bases before another wild pitch brought home Cantrelle for a 4-0 advantage.

Modesto though would answer with two runs of their own in the bottom of the third. After McDonald quickly retired the first two batters of the inning, Axel Sanchez blooped a double down the left field line. Gabriel Gonzalez was then hit by a pitch before Tyler Locklear laced an RBI single into left. On the play, San Jose left fielder Damon Dues threw wildly to home, which allowed Gonzalez to take third and Locklear to move into second. Following a walk to Jonatan Clase that loaded the bases, McDonald threw a wild pitch allowing Gonzalez to score trimming the Giants lead to 4-2. McDonald though would prevent further damage as with the potential tying runs in scoring position, he retired Hogan Windish on pop out to shallow right to end the inning.

San Jose then immediately answered with a run in the top of the fourth. Alexander Suarez led off with a triple to deep left center and scored when Garrett Frechette blooped a single into shallow left to make it 5-2.

McDonald closed out his start with consecutive scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth. The right-hander pitched around a leadoff single and a one-out HBP in the bottom of the fourth. McDonald then induced three groundouts in the fifth as he worked though a two-out walk to maintain the three-run lead.

The Giants pushed their advantage to 6-2 with a run in the top of the sixth after another Suarez leadoff extra-base hit. Following a double down the left field line to start the inning, Frechette flied out to center advancing Suarez to third. A wild pitch then brought home the run to make it 6-2.

The San Jose bullpen then took over for the remainder of the contest. Cruz entered to begin the bottom of the sixth and needed only five pitches to set down the side in order in his first inning of work. A one-out single in the seventh put a runner on base, but Cruz induced a comebacker from the next hitter and started an inning-ending double play. Then in the eighth, following a leadoff single from Locklear, Cruz struck out Clase and got Windish to hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Madison then struck out two in a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth to seal the Giants victory.

GIANTS NOTES

Inside The Box Score: The Giants out-hit the Nuts 10-6. San Jose was 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position compared to only 1-for-4 for Modesto.

At The Plate: Alexander Suarez (2-for-4, 2B, 3B) doubled and tripled to lead the Giants offensively on Friday. Hayden Cantrelle (2-for-4, 3B) added two hits, including his fifth triple of the season while Victor Bericoto (2-for-5, RBI) also produced a multi-hit game. After getting shutout in back-to-back contests last Sunday and Tuesday, San Jose has scored 23 runs over their last three games (7.7 runs per game).

McDonald's Mastery: Trevor McDonald owns a 1.88 ERA in 10 starts since moving into the Giants rotation in early-July.

Playoff Race: San Jose's win combined with Fresno's victory over Stockton on Friday night moved the Giants into a playoff position for the first time since July 25. The Grizzlies (32-20) are now one game ahead of Modesto (31-21) in the second half standings with San Jose (65-53) four games in front of the Nuts (61-57) in the race for the second-best overall record in the North Division. If Fresno wins the second half (after also claiming the first half title), the team with the second-best overall record in the division will qualify for the playoffs. 14 games remain in the regular season.

On Deck: The Giants and Nuts continue their series on Saturday evening with first pitch at John Thurman Field set for 6:05 PM. Manuel Mercedes is San Jose's scheduled starting pitcher.

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