CalL1 San Jose Giants

Playoff Bound Giants Clinch Wild Card with 7-1 Victory in Regular Season Finale

Published on September 3, 2019 under California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release


The San Jose Giants are headed to the playoffs! The Giants closed out the regular season with a 7-1 victory over the Stockton Ports on Monday afternoon at Excite Ballpark. With the win, San Jose clinched the North Division wild card and secured a berth in playoffs for the first time since 2016.

The Giants will take on the Visalia Rawhide in the best-of-five North Division Series beginning on Wednesday. San Jose hosts Games 1 and 2 on Wednesday and Thursday respectively before the series shifts to Visalia for Games 3, 4 and 5.

Monday's clinching win saw the Giants bash three homers while Tristan Beck was masterful on the mound in his start. Beck twirled another gem as the right-hander surrendered only one run over a career-high seven innings to pick-up the win.

San Jose jumped on Stockton starter Xavier Altamirano early with a three-run bottom of the first. With one out, Diego Rincones launched a towering solo home run down the left field line to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. David Villar followed with a single before Courtney Hawkins stepped to the plate and crushed a two-run homer to deep left center. Hawkins' home run, his team-leading 21st of the season, pushed the advantage to 3-0.

The Ports' only run of the contest came in the top of the third when San Jose was unable to complete what would have been an inning-ending double play. Nico Giarratano led off by drawing walk and then advanced to second on Rafael Rincones' groundout. Ryan Gridley followed with a single to put runners on the corners. Austin Beck was up next and his grounder up the middle was gloved by shortstop Manuel Geraldo, who raced to the bag at second to force out Gridley. However, Geraldo's throw to first in an attempt to complete an inning-ending double play sailed over the head of first baseman Shane Matheny and into the Giants dugout. The misplay allowed Giarratano to score while Beck was awarded second. Tristan Beck though was able to prevent further damage in the inning when he struck out the next hitter, Lazaro Armenteros, to retire the side.

Beck then pitched around a leadoff single in the top of the fourth with Payton Squier lining into an inning-ending double play to first. In the fifth, Jordan Devencenzi singled to leadoff before Beck induced Giarrantano to ground into a double play before striking out Rincones.

San Jose then took advantage of two Stockton errors in the bottom of the fifth on their way to scoring three runs. Matheny led off with a grounder to shortstop that was mishandled by Jeremy Eierman for the first error. Then with one out, Villar's shallow fly ball to right was dropped by Rincones for another error. Heath Quinn would then come up with two outs and he lofted a fly ball over the fence in left for a three-run home run. The round-tripper was Quinn's fifth in the California League this season and it extended the Giants lead to 6-1.

The Ports threatened in the top of the sixth as back-to-back one-out singles from Austin Beck and Armenteros followed by a walk to Robert Mullen loaded the bases. Beck though escaped as he struck out Eierman and set down Squier on a fly out to center to strand all three runners. Beck then breezed through the top of the seventh maintaining the 6-1 cushion.

San Jose scored their final run of the afternoon in the bottom of the seventh when Manuel Geraldo hit a two-out RBI triple into the left field corner to make it 7-1.

Camilo Doval relieved Beck to begin the top of the eighth and needed only eight pitches to set down Stockton in order. In the ninth, Patrick Ruotolo took over and slammed the door to secure the victory. Eierman reached on an error to begin the inning before Devencenzi's one-out single put runners on the corners. Ruotolo though induced a soft liner to second off the bat of Giarratano that was caught by Kyle McPherson, who easily doubled off Devencenzi at first to end the game and spark a wild playoff clinching celebration.

GIANTS NOTES

Playoff Bound

The Giants (66-73) finished the regular season 1 1/2 games ahead of Modesto (65-75) in the North wild card race. San Jose won 10 of their final 12 regular season games.

Beck Rolling

Tristan Beck struck out six, walked two and scattered seven hits during his seven innings on Monday. Over his last three starts, Beck went 3-0 with a 0.47 ERA (1 ER/19.0 IP).

Hawkins Continues Power Surge

Courtney Hawkins (1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI) hit his seventh home run in the last nine games.

Hitting Leaders

Manuel Geraldo (3-for-4, 2 2B, 3B) knocked out three extra-base hits, including his team-leading ninth triple of the season. David Villar (2-for-3) and Heath Quinn (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI) also finished with multi-hit games. The Giants out-hit the Ports 11-8.

Winning Second Half

The Giants finished the second half with a 36-34 record - their first winning half since the first half of 2016 (39-31).

Team Awards

The Giants announced their team awards throughout the final homestand of the regular season. Award winners included: Heliot Ramos (Team MVP and Offensive Player of the Year), Matt Frisbee (Pitcher of the Year), David Villar (Defensive Player of the Year), Olbis Parra (Relief Pitcher of the Year) and John Gavin (Good Guy Award).

North Division Series

The Giants host the Visalia Rawhide in Game 1 of the best-of-five North Division Series on Wednesday evening. First pitch at Excite Ballpark is set for 7:00 PM. San Jose will also host Game 2 of the series on Thursday at 7:00 PM. The series then shifts to Visalia's Recreation Park for Games 3, 4 and 5 from Friday-Sunday.

Check out the San Jose Giants Statistics

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California League Stories from September 3, 2019


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