Giants Rout Rawhide, Win Streak at Five
Published on April 24, 2022 under California League (CalL)
San Jose Giants News Release
The San Jose Giants extended their winning streak to a season-high five games with a 10-2 victory over the host Visalia Rawhide on Saturday evening at Valley Strong Ballpark. Aeverson Arteaga and Vaun Brown each homered as part of three-hit nights at the plate while Giants pitching continued its outstanding series on the mound. San Jose (10-4) became the first team in the California League to reach the 10-win mark this season.
Giants pitchers Matt Mikulski, Mat Olsen, Esmerlin Vinicio and Julio Rodriguez combined on a five-hitter Saturday while collecting 13 strikeouts in the convincing win. Meanwhile, the 10 runs scored and 11 hits by San Jose both matched season-high totals.
The Giants jumped out early when the second batter of the game, Arteaga, launched a towering solo home run to left to make it 1-0. The home run was Arteaga's second of the season.
Mikulski started on the mound for San Jose and surrendered a single run in the bottom of the first as the Rawhide tied the game. Jean Walters was hit by a pitch to begin the inning before Jordan Lawlar's single put runners on the corners. Deyvison De Los Santos then produced a sacrifice fly to bring home Walters with the tying run. Visalia had an opportunity to take the lead later in the inning as Lawlar stole second and then moved to third on Shane Muntz's infield single, but Mikulski prevented further damage when he retired Junior Franco on a pop out and induced Oscar Santos to ground into a force out.
The Giants then immediately reclaimed the lead in the top of the second as Brown led off with an opposite field solo homer to right - his second round-tripper of the year.
Meanwhile, Mikulski settled in with back-to-back perfect innings. The left-hander fanned two in a 1-2-3 bottom of the second before notching another strikeout in the third.
San Jose then extended their lead with a two-run top of the fourth. Adrian Sugastey led off with a single to left and took second on the play when the left fielder Franco mishandled the ball for an error. Brown then stepped to the plate and laced a double into left center plating Sugastey with the first run of the inning. Two batters later, Abdiel Layer's single scored Brown to make it 4-1.
Mikulski finished his outing with a scoreless bottom of the fourth pitching around a pair of singles before Olsen entered from the bullpen and struck out two in a perfect fifth inning.
Both teams then scored a single run in the sixth. In the top half, Brown led off with a single - his third hit of the night. Brown later took second on a wild pitch and came home on Garrett Frechette's two-out line drive single into right. Visalia got the run back in the bottom of the inning without the benefit of a hit against Olsen. Lawlar drew a leadoff walk, stole second, moved to third on an error and scored on a two-out wild pitch to trim the Giants lead to 5-2.
Olsen and Vinicio would combine on a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh before San Jose erupted for five runs in the eighth inning to blow the game open. The rally began when Yorlis Rodriguez reached safely on a one-out error. Layer then doubled off the left center field wall to put runners on second and third. Frechette followed with a grounder to second that was fielded by Walters, but his hurried throw home was dropped by the catcher Muntz as he attempted to tag out Rodriguez. Frechette, who was safe at first on the fielder's choice, was credited with an RBI as the lead grew to 6-2. A walk to Najee Gaskins followed to load the bases before Grant McCray went down swinging for the second out. Arteaga though was up next and he delivered a clutch hit smacking a line drive into right center field for a double as both Layer and Frechette scored to make it 8-2. Back-to-back wild pitches from Rawhide reliever Junior Mieses then plated the ninth and tenth Giants runs for a 10-2 cushion.
Vinicio pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth for San Jose before Rodriguez worked the ninth inning to secure San Jose's fifth win of the series.
GIANTS NOTES
Five In A Row: The Giants have outscored Visalia 31-10 over the first five games of the series. The San Jose pitching staff boasts a 1.37 team ERA in the series with 64 strikeouts in 46 innings pitched.
Hitting Leaders: Arteaga (3-for-5, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) and Brown (3-for-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) led the way for the Giants offensively on Saturday. Layer (2-for-4, 2B, RBI) also finished with a multi-hit game. San Jose had gone eight straight games without a home run before Arteaga's first-inning blast.
Mikulski's Start: Mikulski surrendered only one run on four hits over four innings in his start. He walked none and struck out four. Mikulski owns a 1.50 ERA (2 ER/12 IP) over three starts this season.
In The 'Pen: Olsen (2-0) was credited with the win after tossing 2 2/3 hitless innings of long relief. The right-hander allowed only one unearned run, walked one and struck out six. All six punchouts were swinging strikeouts. Vinicio (1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 2 SO) and Rodriguez (1 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO) then combined on 2 1/3 scoreless innings to finish the game.
On Deck: The Giants will look to sweep the six-game series against Visalia on Sunday afternoon with first pitch at Valley Strong Ballpark set for 1:00 PM. Eric Silva is San Jose's scheduled starting pitcher.
California League Stories from April 24, 2022
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