STOCKTON, CA - The wind was gusting out of Banner Island Ballpark, and it was clear early on that the ball would travel tonight. The Stockton Ports used it to their advantage to clobber four home runs, the most an opponent has hit against the Rawhide in any one game
STOCKTON, CA - The wind was gusting out of Banner Island Ballpark, and it was clear early on that the ball would travel tonight. The Stockton Ports used it to their advantage to clobber four home runs, the most an opponent has hit against the Rawhide in any one game this year, and lead themselves to an 8-5 series-opening win.
Stockton (40-39, 4-5) saw Tyler Ramirez launch an opposite-field solo homer to left in the first inning that, off the bat, looked like it would be a routine fly ball. Brett Siddal and Argenis Raga would follow with back-to-back solo blasts in the second inning, Siddal's heading out to right-center and Raga's leaving the yard in dead left. The Ports trailed 5-3 at that point, but with the bases loaded and two strikes against him, Skye Bolt blasted a grand slam off of the porch deck in right field, putting the Ports up for good.
All of the home runs came against Tyler Badamo (L, 0-1) in his Diamondbacks organization debut after being signed from the independent Bridgeport Bluefish. Badamo also allowed a run in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Siddal. He departed after the sixth having allowed eight runs on 11 hits, striking out four, walking one, and hitting one hitter.
Visalia (39-49, 3-6) scored three runs in the top of the first inning, and appeared to have left their offensive woes behind them in Modesto. Matt McPhearson and Sergio Alcántara singled back-to-back and, after they were moved over to third by a Grant Heyman Groundout, Marty Herum singled them home to put the Rawhide up 2-0. Jason Morozowski moved Herum over with a groundout and Tyler Baker smashed a grounder down the first base line for an RBI double.
Visalia padded the lead in the top of the second when Daniel Lockhart blasted a two-run homer to left-center. At the time, the Rawhide led 5-1. Visalia's five runs and ten hits were the highest totals of the road trip, on which the Rawhide are winless.
McPhearson, Alcantara, and Baker all put up multi-hit performances for the Rawhide and Herum put up his team-best tenth mutli-RBI game by driving in two.
The Rawhide will continue the road trip in Stockton tomorrow evening. The Rawhide will ask RHP Bo Takahashi (5-3, 3.44), to be the stopper against Oakland A's #13 prospect Norge Ruiz (0-0. -.-), who was added from the Arizona Summer League this week. First pitch is at 7:10 and the Rawhide's live broadcast can be heard on rawhidebaseball.com and the TuneIn app.
