Giants Sweep Grizzlies, Advance to Championship Series | Giants
CalL San Jose Giants

Giants Sweep Grizzlies, Advance to Championship Series | Giants

Published on September 12, 2025 under California League (CalL)
San Jose Giants News Release


The San Jose Giants are headed to the Championship Series! After posting the best record in the California League during the regular season, the Giants swept the Fresno Grizzlies two-games-to-none in the North Division Series this week. San Jose earned a 2-0 shutout win in Fresno to open the series

The San Jose Giants are headed to the Championship Series! After posting the best record in the California League during the regular season, the Giants swept the Fresno Grizzlies two-games-to-none in the North Division Series this week. San Jose earned a 2-0 shutout win in Fresno to open the series before holding on for a 7-6 Game 2 victory at Excite Ballpark to secure the sweep.

The Giants now advance to play the South Division champion Inland Empire 66ers in the best-of-three California League Championship Series beginning on Sunday at Excite Ballpark.

San Jose, the first half winners in the North Division during the regular season, opened their playoff run on Tuesday night with Game 1 in Fresno against the second half champion Grizzlies. Giants pitching would steal the show in the postseason opener as Luis De La Torre and Hunter Dryden combined on a three-hit shutout with 16 strikeouts to lead the way. De La Torre, who fashioned a 1.77 ERA in eight regular season starts for the Giants, tossed the first five innings and allowed only two hits with no walks and six strikeouts during his outing. After surrendering a leadoff double in the bottom of the third, De La Torre would go onto retire the next nine batters he faced to complete his outing.

All the offense in Game 1 came in the top of the fifth inning as the Giants rallied against Fresno ace pitcher Brody Brecht. Lisbel Diaz led off the inning with a single before Walker Martin's one-out double put runners on second and third. Cam Maldonado, this year's seventh round pick of the San Francisco Giants who joined San Jose last month, then stepped to the plate and crushed a fly ball off the fence in deep right center field. The hit went for a triple as both Diaz and Martin scored giving the Giants a 2-0 lead.

The two runs would prove to be enough for San Jose as Dryden finished the game on the mound with a dazzling four innings of work. Dryden was a starting pitcher for the Giants during the regular season and posted a stellar 2.90 ERA with 103 strikeouts over 93 innings pitched. In his first relief appearance of the year, Dryden struck out a whopping 10 batters over the final four frames yielding only one hit and one walk. The right-hander struck out the side in a perfect bottom of the sixth to begin his outing, fanned three more in the seventh as he worked around a one-out walk and then set down the side in order in the eighth collecting one more strikeout. In the bottom of the ninth, with the score still at 2-0, Dryden opened the inning with another strikeout before surrendering a one-out triple - Fresno's first hit since the third. But with the tying run at the plate, Dryden struck out 2025 first round draft pick Ethan Holliday and then finished the game with a strikeout of #3 hitter Robert Calaz sealing the Giants victory.

Following an off day, the North Division Series then resumed on Thursday night in front of a raucous crowd at Excite Ballpark. Game 2 opened with Fresno scoring twice in the top of the first inning against Giants starter and Pitcher of the Year candidate Jacob Bresnahan to take an early 2-0 lead. San Jose though immediately answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first to knock out Grizzlies starting pitcher Marcos Herrera. Jhonny Level drew a walk to start the inning before Lorenzo Meola blasted a double off the right field wall. Level moved to third on the hit and was able to score the Giants' first run when the right field Calaz mishandled the ball off the fence for an error.

Trevor Cohen was up next and he singled to right promptly bringing in Meola to tie the game. Then after a Diaz single and a walk to Diego Cartaya loaded the bases, Martin produced a sacrifice fly to put San Jose ahead 3-2.

The Giants continued to put pressure on the Grizzlies the next inning as Level led off the bottom of the second with a home run to left center. The 18-year shortstop was named the top prospect in the rookie-level Arizona Complex League this season before joining San Jose in the second half. His home run was the only round-tripper hit in the series. The Giants added another run in the inning as a bases loaded walk with two outs drawn by Maldonado made it 5-2.

Bresnahan settled down after his shaky top of the first to keep Fresno off the board over the next three innings. The left-hander finished his night with two runs (one earned) allowed in four innings of work with five strikeouts. Niko Mazza, a starter during the regular season, then relieved Bresnahan to begin the top of the fifth and put up a quick zero before the Grizzlies rallied for a pair of two-out runs in the top of the sixth to pull within 5-4.

Mazza recovered with a scoreless top of the seventh maintaining the lead before the Giants added to their advantage with single tallies in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings. In the home half of the seventh, Martin clubbed a two-out double to deep center and scored on Maldonado's single. An inning later, Meola knocked in a run with a one-out single to make it 7-4.

Needing three outs to win the series, Ryan Slater begin the top of the ninth on the mound for San Jose. Slater had pitched a scoreless top of the eighth, but would immediately run into trouble in the ninth as two singles and an error loaded the bases with none out. Closer Cade Vernon was then summoned from the bullpen and he promptly induced Calaz to hit a weak grounder to shortstop that saw the Giants force out the runner at second. However, Level's throw to first, in an attempt to complete a double play, sailed wide for an error allowing a second run to score on the play. The result was the Giants' lead trimmed to 7-6. Another single followed to move the tying run to second base while the go-ahead run stood at first. Vernon though would slam the door as he struck out the next hitter before Kelvin Hidalgo's sharp line drive was caught at second base by Meola to end the game and complete the series sweep.

The Giants have reached the Championship Series for the first time since taking home the league title in 2021. San Jose will host the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels affiliate) in Game 1 of the best-of-three Championship Series on Sunday, September 14 with first pitch at Excite Ballpark set for 5:00 PM. The series then shifts to San Bernardino for Game 2 on Tuesday, September 16 and, if necessary, Game 3 on Wednesday, September 17.

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California League Stories from September 12, 2025


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