Giants Cruise To 8-1 Victory

SAN BERNARDINO, CA -DJ Myers delivered a masterful six-inning start while Gio Brusa and Sandro Fabian each homered in an 8-1 Giants victory over the Inland Empire 66ers on Tuesday evening at San Manuel Stadium. With the win, San Jose (52-70 overall, 18-34 second half) evened their series against the Sixers at a game apiece.
Myers (5-3) surrendered just one run during his six-inning performance to pick-up the win. The right-hander, who matched his longest start of the season, gave up five hits, walked one and struck out four.
Brusa (2-for-5, HR, RBI) had two hits, including his team-leading 18th home run of the season, for the Giants offensively. Fabian (1-for-2, HR, 2 RBI) added his ninth home run while Chris Corbett (1-for-4, 2B, 2 RBI) produced a key two-out, two-run double.
San Jose took an early 3-0 lead on Tuesday with three runs in the top of the second against Inland Empire starter Erik Manoah Jr.. Brusa led off the inning with a towering solo home run to deep right. Then with one out, Wander Franco walked and Kelvin Beltre was hit by a pitch before both runners came home on Corbett's two-out bloop double into shallow left.
The Giants extended their lead to 4-0 when Fabian crushed a solo home run to left in the top of the fourth.
Meanwhile, Myers faced only two batters over the minimum through the first five innings. The San Jose starter pitched around a one-out single in the bottom of the second and then used a double play to work through a leadoff single in the third. Myers had retired eight hitters in a row until Zane Gurwitz singled with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, but DJ Jenkins followed with a fly out to right to quickly end the inning.
The 66ers finally broke through against Myers in the bottom of the sixth scoring once. Bernabe Camargo led off with a single before David MacKinnon drew a two-out walk. Jordan Zimmerman followed with a ringing double down the left field line to score Camargo bringing Inland Empire to within 4-1. However with runners at second and third, Myers induced the next hitter, Richie Fecteau, to groundout to first ending the inning.
Franklin Van Gurp (2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 SO) relieved Myers to begin the bottom of the seventh and struck out two in a 1-2-3 frame to maintain the three-run advantage.
The Giants then broke the game open with three runs in the top of the eighth. Heath Quinn was hit by a pitch with one out to start the rally before Brusa singled to right putting runners on the corners. Following a wild pitch that advanced Brusa to second, Dillon Dobson worked a walk to load the bases. Franco was then hit by a pitch to force home Quinn with the first run of the inning. Fabian was up next and he lifted a sacrifice fly to deep right plating Brusa before Beltre came through with a two-out RBI single into center to make it 7-1.
After Van Gurp stranded a pair of runners in the bottom of the eighth, San Jose completed the scoring for the night with a run in the top of the ninth. Bryce Johnson drew his third walk of the game to start the inning before Jalen Miller hammered an RBI double to the fence in deep left center for an 8-1 cushion.
Rodolfo Martinez (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 SO) tossed a scoreless bottom of the ninth for the Giants to seal the victory.
Manoah (2-9) suffered the loss after yielding four runs (all earned) over 4 1/3 innings. He surrendered three hits, walked three and struck out six.
Notes
* The Giants improved to 2-3 on their road trip.
* Myers owns a 2.65 ERA over his last three starts (5 ER/17.0 IP).
* Brusa's home run was the 35th of his with the San Jose Giants - sixth-most in team history.
* Inland Empire out-hit San Jose 7-6.
* Miller's double was his 31st of the season - tied for fifth in the California League.
On Deck
The Giants and 66ers play the rubber game of their three-game series on Wednesday evening with first pitch at San Manuel Stadium scheduled for 7:05 PM. John Gavin (0-2, 7.45 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Inland Empire is expected to counter with Nate Bertness (3-7, 5.14 ERA). The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com with coverage beginning at 6:45 PM.