Stockton (4-16) has dropped two consecutive games to North Division leader Visalia (15-5). The Ports totaled 11 hits, but the offense was not enough to secure the win. RHP Scott Mitchinson took the loss for the Ports, his first this season. Mitchinson tossed 3.1 innings, and allowed six earned runs on seven hits. Reliever Pat Currin allowed three runs, two earned and Derrick Gordon allowed two earned runs in the contest. Jon Hunton pitched the last inning, and allowed just one hit and struck out two.
Josh Collmenter picked up the win for Visalia, working 5.0 innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits. He struck out five batters in the game.
Stockton took an early 3-0 lead in the first inning. Center fielder David Thomas, who was called up from Single-A Kane County prior to the game, led things off with a single. With two outs, Raul Padron was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Designated hitter Todd Johnson slammed a home run, his second of the season, to right field to put the Ports ahead.
The Visalia bats came alive in the fourth inning, as the Rawhide totaled eight hits. First baseman Ed Easley led off the inning with a single, and was followed on base by Collin Cowgill, who doubled. Ryne White brought both runners home with a single. A double by designated hitter Sean Coughlin put runners on the corners with no out for the Rawhide. Catcher Konrad Schmidt made it 4-3 with an RBI single to score White. Kyle Greene then popped out to third baseman Larry Cobb for the first out of the inning. Right fielder Derrick Walker stepped up to the plate and singled, and advanced to second on an error by left fielder Shane Keough, which scored Schmidt.
Mitchinson (0-1, 4.74) was then removed from the game and replaced with right-handed pitcher Pat Currin. Currin then surrendered a two-RBI single to Manny Ferrer, to make it 6-3 in favor of Visalia. Taylor Harbin got on base on a fielder's choice, which put out Ferrer at second base. With two out and one on, Easley came back to the plate for the second time that inning, and knocked in the seventh Visalia run with a single. Cowgill flew out to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
Visalia added two more runs in the fifth inning. White reached on an error by third baseman Alex Valdez, and Coughlin followed him on base with a single. Currin hit Schmidt with a pitch to load the bases with no out. A single by Greene scored White and Coughlin.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Rawhide pulled ahead, 11-3, with RBI singles by Greene and Walker. White, Walker and Ferrer all ended the game with two RBI, while Greene totaled three RBI in Wednesday's contest.
The Ports chipped away at the Rawhide lead in the bottom of the seventh. Frank Martinez, who came into the game in the bottom of the fourth originally as a pinch hitter for Keough and remained in the game to play second base, led off the inning with a single. He was followed on base by Valdez, who walked. David Thomas loaded the bases with his second single of the game. With two out and bases loaded, first baseman Matt Spencer knocked a two-RBI single to make the score 11-5. The single extended Spencer's hitting streak to seven games, his longest this season, and the second longest hitting streak by a Ports player this season.
Spencer took another big bite out of the Visalia lead in the ninth inning. After Valdez flew out to begin the ninth, shortstop Michael Richard singled. Thomas struck out looking, and the Ports got two aboard the bases when Jermaine Mitchell walked. With two out and two on, Spencer launched his fifth home run of the season into the Jackson Rancheria Back Porch in right field, cutting the lead in half.
But Dante Love, who entered the game in the fourth inning for Raul Padron, grounded out to end the game.
RHP Justin Murray (0-2, 3.48) will be taking the mound for the Ports on Thursday, in the series finale against the Visalia Rawhide. RHP Bryan Shaw (1-2, 5.84) will start for Visalia in the 7:05 p.m. game. Thursday will be the first Thirsty Thursday of the season at Banner Island Ballpark, and is also Prom Gone Wrong. Fans are encouraged to wear their best "worst" prom attire for the game. |
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