Giants Snap Skid With 11-0 Rout Of Grizzlies
April 29, 2023 - California League (CalL)
San Jose Giants News Release
The San Jose Giants snapped their three-game skid with a dominant 11-0 win over the Fresno Grizzlies on Friday night at Chukchansi Park. Three Giants pitchers combined on a two-hit shutout as San Jose (11-8) earned their largest margin of victory in a game this season.
The complete effort by the Giants on Friday saw the club knock out 15 hits with Matt Higgins (3-for-4, 4 RBI), Diego Velasquez (3-for-5, 3 RBI) and Alexander Suarez (3-for-5) leading the way individually. On the mound, starter Gerelmi Maldonado worked the first four innings and did not allow a hit. Maldonado pitched around three walks and struck out two during his stellar pitching performance. Piggyback reliever Nomar Medina then fired four scoreless innings of his own yielding just two hits with one walk and one strikeout before Esmerlin Vinicio closed it out in the ninth. The shutout was San Jose's second of the season.
After scoring a total of just four runs over the first three games in the series (all losses), the Giants wasted no time on Friday jumping on Fresno starter Jordy Vargas. Back-to-back singles from Carter Howell and Velasquez started the game before Zach Morgan walked to load the bases. Higgins then worked a full-count walk to force home the first run of the night. Jose Ramos followed with a sacrifice fly plating Velasquez to make it 2-0 before a balk plated the third San Jose run of the inning.
The Giants then stretched their lead to 7-0 with a four-run top of the fourth. A leadoff walk to Thomas Gavello and one-out singles from Andrew Kachel and Suarez loaded the bases for San Jose. After Howell popped out, Velasquez provided a clutch hit with a line drive single to right. The hit scored both Gavello and Kachel while an error on Grizzlies right fielder Robby Martin Jr. also allowed Suarez to score on the play to make it 6-0. Two batters later, Higgins singled home Velasquez for a 7-0 cushion.
The Giants then pushed across two more runs in both the eighth and ninth innings to bring the game to its final margin of 11-0. In the eighth, Higgins collected his third and fourth RBI's of the night with a two-run single. Then in the ninth, back-to-back doubles from Tanner O'Tremba and Kachel produced the 10th San Jose run. Velasquez then completed the scoring for the night with a two-out RBI single to push the lead to 11-0.
Fresno's only two hits of the game were a Cole Stilwell leadoff single in the bottom of the fifth and Ryan Ritter's leadoff double in the seventh. The Giants went 7-for-18 with runners in scoring position compared to just 0-for-4 for the Grizzlies. Howell (2-for-6) and Kachel (2-for-4, 2B, RBI) also had multi-hit games for San Jose.
The Giants and Grizzlies continue their series on Saturday evening with first pitch at Chukchansi Park set for 6:50 PM. Manuel Mercedes is San Jose's scheduled starting pitcher. The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com.
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