Rawhide Use Dominant Pitching Performance to Take Down Giants

SAN JOSE, CA-Visalia came into Saturday night’s game down 3-1 in the series but now sit one win away from tying their final six-game set against San Jose after beating the Low-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants 7-1 behind a dominant pitching performance and a couple of home runs.

Luke Albright made his fourth start of the season for the Rawhide on Saturday night and came away with the first win of his career after tossing five innings and three strikeouts while only giving up four hits to go with zero earned runs. Albright has a spectacular 2.92 ERA in his four appearances for Visalia, currently leading the ball club. His record on the season improved to 1-0.

Jake Rice was Visalia’s only other pitcher on Saturday, pitching the remaining four innings while recording six strikeouts and giving up three hits and the only run that San Jose was able to muster and picking up his first career save. Both Albright and Rice were 2021 Diamondbacks draft picks with Albright coming in the 6th round and Rice coming in the 9th.

Deyvison De Los Santos, the teams primary third baseman since AJ Vukovich was called up, hit his first career home run in the first inning as part of a two hit, three RBI day that saw his batting average climb to .271, currently tops on the team.

Slugger and slam dunk 2022 call-up candidate Neyfy Castillo hit his league leading 19th home run in the 5th inning as he also moved up to 7th in the Low-A West league with 65 RBI after collecting a pair of them on Saturday night to go with a pair of hits and a run.

Other notable hitters include Tim Tawa, who had two hits and scored three of the Rawhide’s seven runs as well as SP Chen, who was also able to knock in a pair of hits and Ryan Bliss with two RBI. An extremely efficient night from the infield with the four infielders, 1B Castillo, 2B Chen, 3B De Los Santos and SS Bliss combining for two homeruns, seven hits and all seven of the teams RBI.

While San Jose shot themselves in the foot with three errors, Visalia was able to finish the game unscathed when it came to fielding mishaps, a key reason they were able to win the game.

Visalia plays its final game against San Jose in 2021 on Sunday at 5 PM pacific time.