CalL1 San Jose Giants

Ninth-Inning Heroics Lift Giants to Walk-Off Win

July 26, 2018 - California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release


SAN JOSE, CA - Wander Franco hit a game-tying solo home run to leadoff the bottom of the ninth before Heath Quinn delivered an RBI single later in the inning to lift the Giants to a thrilling 8-7 victory over the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes on Wednesday night at Municipal Stadium. The walk-off win snapped San Jose's four-game losing streak and was the Giants' (46-58 overall, 12-22 second half) first victory in seven attempts versus the Quakes at home this season.

Quinn (2-for-5, HR, 3 RBI) also smacked a two-run home run earlier in the contest while Franco (2-for-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) drove home a total of three runs to lead the San Jose offensive attack.

The wild back-and-forth affair saw Rancho Cucamonga rally from an early three-run deficit before the Giants twice came back from two runs down. The walk-off win was San Jose's seventh of the season.

The Giants opened the scoring on Wednesday with a three-run bottom of the first. Jacob Heyward led off the frame with a single before stealing second base. A one-out single from Jalen Miller put runners on the corners before Matt Winn ripped a two-out, two-run double into the right center field gap. Following a Bryce Johnson walk, Franco stepped to the plate and belted an RBI double off the left field wall to extend the San Jose lead to 3-0.

Domenic Mazza started on the mound for the Giants and retired seven out of the first eight batters he faced before running into trouble in the top of the third. With one out, Steve Berman tripled to deep right and immediately scored when the next batter, Gavin Lux, singled. After an Omar Estevez single, Cody Thomas launched a home run to deep right center. The three-run blast, Thomas' 14th home run of the season, put the Quakes in front by a 4-3 margin.

Rancho Cucamonga then knocked Mazza out of the game with another run in the top of the fifth. Lux led off with a single, advanced to second on a walk to Estevez and scored when Thomas lined a single into center. The RBI hit made it 5-3, but Franklin Van Gurp then entered from the bullpen and retired the side to prevent further damage in the inning.

San Jose then answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game. With one out, Heyward drew a walk before Quinn drilled a two-run home run to deep left. The homer was Quinn's 10th of the year and it brought the Giants even at 5-5.

The Quakes though came right back with a two-run top of the sixth to reclaim the lead. With Van Gurp (2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO) still on the mound, Jared Walker reached on catcher's interference to leadoff the inning. Berman then doubled down the right field line to bring home Walker all the way from first base with the go-ahead tally. Two batters later, Estevez blooped a double into shallow right plating Berman to make it 7-5 Rancho Cucamonga.

San Jose got one run back in the bottom of the sixth as Johnson singled with one out, stole second and advanced to third when the throw bounced into center field. Franco followed with an RBI groundout to trim the Quakes lead to 7-6.

Nolan Riggs (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 SO) struck out four in two perfect innings of relief over the seventh and eighth for the Giants, however San Jose went down quietly in the home half of both frames. Frank Rubio (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO) then breezed through a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to keep the deficit at one run before the Giants rallied in the bottom of the inning.

With Austin Hamilton on the mound for Rancho Cucamonga, Franco crushed the second pitch of the inning over the fence in left for a game-tying solo home run. The homer was Franco's fourth of the season. Sandro Fabian then lined a single into right to put the potential winning run on base. With Brandon Van Horn at the plate, pinch-runner Johneshwy Fargas stole second - his league-leading 34th stolen base of the year. Van Horn would ultimately groundout to third before a full-count walk to Heyward. Quinn was up next and he laced a 1-2 pitch from Hamilton down the left field line and into the corner. Fargas easily scored from second on the Quinn single giving San Jose the walk-off win.

Rubio (1-1) was credited with the win for the Giants.

Hamilton (1-3), who entered the game out of the Quakes bullpen to begin the bottom of the eighth, suffered the loss.

Notes

* The Giants posted their first walk-off victory since May 29. Five of San Jose's seven walk-off wins this season came in April.

* The Giants won their league-leading fourth game this season when trailing after eight innings.

* San Jose improved to 3-11 against Rancho Cucamonga this year (1-6 at Municipal Stadium).

* Franco has hit three home runs over his last 10 games after one homer in his first 82 games this season.

* The Giants bullpen trio of Van Gurp, Riggs and Rubio combined to retire the final 11 Quakes hitters of the game, seven of which were set down via the strikeout.

* San Jose out-hit Rancho Cucamonga 10-9. The Giants finished 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

* Quinn snapped out of a 2-for-20 skid with his two hits on Wednesday.

* San Jose played their league-leading 36th one-run game of the season (16-20 record).

On Deck

The Giants and Quakes play the rubber game of their three-game series on Thursday afternoon with first pitch at Municipal Stadium scheduled for 12:30 PM. Joey Marciano (0-2, 11.77 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Rancho Cucamonga is expected to counter with Leo Crawford (3-0, 2.79 ERA). For tickets, call (408) 297-1435 or visit sjgiants.com.

Check out the San Jose Giants Statistics



California League Stories from July 26, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central