Giants Take Series From 66ers With 6-4 Win

SAN BERNARDINO - Joe Biagini tossed six effective innings and Ydwin Villegas hit a two-run home run to lead the San Jose Giants to a 6-4 victory over the Inland Empire 66ers on Monday evening at San Manuel Stadium. With the win, the Giants take three out of four in the series and finish their seven-game road trip with a 4-3 record.

Biagini (3-3), who took a shutout into the sixth inning, struck out a season-high eight batters during his stint on the mound. The right-hander allowed two runs (both earned) on four hits and issued two walks. At one point in his start, Biagini retired 12 consecutive Inland Empire batters.

Villegas' (1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI) home run was his first of the season to lead the San Jose offensive attack. Shawn Payne (2-for-5, 2 SB) was the only Giants player to finish the game with more than one hit.

San Jose never trailed in the contest building a 5-0 lead before holding off the 66ers late. The Giants scored in five straight innings starting with a single tally in the top of the third. Ben Turner began the frame with a double into the left field corner before moving to third on Villegas' sacrifice bunt and then scoring when Chuckie Jones hit a sacrifice fly to deep center.

In the top of the fourth, Payne singled to leadoff and stole second. With two outs, Payne stole third and then scored when the throw from catcher Zach Wright sailed down the left field line for an error.

San Jose extended their lead to 4-0 in the top of the fifth as after Matt Pare was hit by a pitch, Villegas stepped to the plate and belted a two-run home run to left.

In the sixth, Blake Miller drew a one-out walk before advancing to third on Elliott Blair's double to deep left center. After an intentional walk to Brian Ragira loaded the bases, Pare grounded out to first plating Miller for a 5-0 advantage.

Meanwhile, Biagini breezed through five scoreless innings to begin his start. The 66ers had two runners thrown out on the bases in the bottom of the first as Sherman Johnson was picked-off at first base for the first out. Later in the frame, Mark Shannon was thrown out at second attempting to steal before Biagini struck out Wade Hinkle with runners on first and second to end the inning.

Biagini then worked 1-2-3 second, third and fourth innings. He fanned two batters in the bottom of the fourth before two more strikeouts to begin the fifth inning. Alex Allbritton then doubled for Inland Empire's first baserunner since the first, but Biagini came back to retire Riley Good on a groundout to end the inning.

The 66ers finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth against Biagini as Cal Towey walked with two outs before Dennis Raben smacked a two-run home run to right. The homer, Raben's fifth of the season, trimmed the Giants lead to 5-2.

San Jose got one run back in the top of the seventh as Jones singled, Alberto Robles walked and Payne singled to load the bases with one out. Miller then hit a sacrifice fly to center plating Jones to make it 6-2.

Bryce Bandilla (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 SO) pitched a scoreless bottom of the seventh for the Giants before Inland Empire rallied for a pair of runs against Tyler Mizenko (1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO) in the eighth inning. With the 66ers down by four runs, Johnson led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple to deep right center and immediately scored when the next batter, Shannon, grounded out. Back-to-back singles from Towey and Raben followed before a walk to Hinkle loaded the bases. Joe Weik then hit a sacrifice fly to shallow right to score Towey to make it 6-4. However, Jones threw out Raben, who was also tagging on the play, at third base to end the inning.

Steven Okert (1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO) entered the game to begin the bottom of the ninth and quickly ran into trouble as Wright and Allbritton both singled to put runners on the corners with none out. Okert then struck out Good swinging for the first out. Johnson was up next and he struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch for the second out as Allbritton, the potential tying run, stole second. Okert then ended the game with a swinging strikeout of Shannon on another 3-2 pitch.

Okert was credited with his league-leading 16th save in 16 chances this season.

Inland Empire's Chris O'Grady (0-1), who was making his first start of the year after 18 relief appearances, suffered the loss after yielding one run on two hits over the first three innings.

Notes: Biagini is 3-1 with a 2.59 ERA over his last five starts … Inland Empire out-hit San Jose 10-7 … Villegas' home run was his first since 2011 … He has three home runs in his seven-year career … The Giants finish with a 6-4 record against the 66ers this season … Okert lowered his ERA to 1.21 … San Jose is 8-4 in their last 12 games.

On Deck: The Giants return home on Tuesday evening to begin a three-game series against the High Desert Mavericks. First pitch at Municipal Stadium is scheduled for 7:00 PM. Chris Stratton (2-6, 5.09 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while High Desert is expected to counter with Min-Sih Chen (2-3, 6.51 ERA). Tickets are available and can be purchased by calling (408) 297-1435 or by visiting sjgiants.com.