Giants Suffer 5-2 Loss To Bakersfield

SAN JOSE - Bakersfield's Ben Lively struck out six over five scoreless innings and the Blaze held off the Giants late to record a 5-2 victory over San Jose on Friday evening at Municipal Stadium. The Giants brought the potential tying run to the plate with two outs in both the eighth and ninth innings, but fell short to suffer the loss. 

Lively (2-0), who owns a 0.82 ERA through his first two starts of the year, allowed four hits and did not walk a batter during his dominant performance on the mound. 

Elliott Blair (2-for-4) had a pair of singles while Brian Ragira (1-for-4, 2 RBI) drove home both of San Jose's runs to lead the Giants offensively in defeat.

Bakersfield never trailed in the contest scoring twice in the top of the first off of San Jose starter Martin Agosta to take the early lead. With one out, Junior Arias singled and then stole second. After Jesse Winker drew a walk, Seth Mejias-Brean delivered an RBI single to center to make it 1-0. On the play, Giants center fielder Jesus Galindo attempted to throw out Winker at third, however San Jose third baseman Mitch Delfino mishandled the accurate one-hop throw for an error. The miscue allowed Winker to make it safely into third while Mejias-Brean advanced to second. Marquez Smith followed with a sacrifice fly to left plating Winker for a 2-0 Blaze advantage.

Agosta (0-1) suffered the loss for the Giants in his California League debut. The right-hander pitched the first three innings yielding two runs (one earned) on two hits. Agosta walked two and struck out three. He held Bakersfield off the scoreboard in the second and third innings retiring eight out of the last nine batters he faced.

The Blaze then extended their lead to 4-0 with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth off of San Jose reliever Jeff Soptic (2 1/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO). After a leadoff single from Juan Silva, Zachary Vincej delivered an RBI double for the first run of the frame. Following a Ryan Wright ground out, Soptic uncorked a wild pitch to score Vincej to make it 4-0.

Meanwhile, Lively retired nine straight Giants hitters until back-to-back singles from Delfino and Blair to begin the bottom of the fifth. However, the Bakersfield starter recovered to set down the next three San Jose batters to maintain a 4-0 cushion.

The Blaze scored their final run of the night in the top of the sixth when Mejias-Brean led off with a towering home run to left center off of Soptic.

Trailing 5-0, the Giants finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth against the Bakersfield bullpen. Trevor Brown started the rally with a leadoff double before Alberto Robles drew a walk. A one-out single from Jesus Galindo then loaded the bases and after Rando Moreno popped out, Ragira blooped a single into shallow right to score Brown and Robles cutting the lead to 5-2. Mac Williamson was up next as the potential tying run, but Blaze reliever Carlos Gonzalez induced the San Jose slugger to ground out to second to end the inning.

Still down by three runs, the Giants threatened in the bottom of the ninth as Blair singled with one out and Robles walked with two down to again bring the tying run to the plate. However, Gonzalez followed by striking out Chris Lofton to seal the Bakersfield victory.

Gonzalez, was worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings to finish the game, was credited with his second save of the year.

Notes: The teams have split the first two games of the series … San Jose was 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position on Friday … Ragira picked-up his first two RBI's of the season … Both clubs finished with eight hits … Ian Gardeck (1 2/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 SO), Jorge Bucardo (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO) and Steven Okert (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO) also pitched out of the Giants bullpen … With the loss, San Jose fell to 4-5 this season.

On Deck: The Giants and Blaze continue their four-game series on Saturday evening with first pitch at Municipal Stadium scheduled for 5:00 PM. Pat Young (1-0, 0.00 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Bakersfield is expected to counter with Wandy Peralta (0-1, 4.50 ERA). It's a Mix 106.5 Saturday in the Park and tickets can be purchased by calling (408) 297-1435 or by visiting sjgiants.com.