Home Runs Power Giants Past Sixers, 6-1

SAN BERNARDINO, CA - The San Jose Giants blasted three home runs as part of a 13-hit offensive attack on Sunday afternoon en route to a 6-1 victory over the Inland Empire 66ers at San Manuel Stadium. The win gave San Jose a split of their season-opening four-game series with the Sixers.
Brandon Van Horn (2-for-5, HR, 2 RBI), Sandro Fabian (2-for-5, 2B, HR, RBI) and Jacob Heyward (1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI) each homered for the Giants on the Sunday. Home runs accounted for five of San Jose's six runs in the contest. Frandy De La Rosa (3-for-5, 3B), Matt Winn (2-for-5, 2B, RBI) and Jalen Miller (2-for-5, 2B) also finished with multi-hit games for the Giants.
Sandro Cabrera (1-0) was credited with the win after tossing four scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Cabrera worked around three hits and two walks during his long relief outing. The left-hander struck out four.
Mac Marshall started on the mound for San Jose and fired three shutout innings in his California League debut. Marshall allowed only one hit - a DJ Jenkins bloop double down the right field line in the bottom of the third - during his impressive outing. Marshall walked two and struck out four.
The game was scoreless until the Giants broke through in the top of the fourth. Fabian led off the frame with a double down the left field line before moving to third on Wander Franco's groundout. Winn then stepped to the plate and hammered a double off the top of the fence in deep left. The hit brought home Fabian with the first run of the day.
Cabrera relieved Marshall to begin the bottom of the fourth and ran into some trouble with two outs as Jared Walsh walked and Luis Rengifo singled to put runners on first and second. Jordan Zimmerman then grounded a single through the left side, but the left fielder Heyward threw out Walsh, who was attempting to score the tying run, at the plate to end the inning.
Heyward then extended the Giants lead with a two-run home run in the top of the fifth. With one out in the inning, Gio Brusa drew a walk before Heyward launched a fly ball over the fence in left to make the score 3-0. The home run was Heyward's first of the season.
San Jose kept the pressure on with two more runs in the top of the sixth. The inning began with a Winn single before Van Horn belted a two-run homer to left center. The home run was Van Horn's first of the year. Then in the seventh, Fabian lined a solo home run to left for a 6-0 advantage.
Meanwhile, Cabrera pitched around a two-out single in the bottom of the fifth and a one-out walk in the sixth to keep the Sixers off the scoreboard. Cabrera then finished his afternoon with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
Michael Cederoth (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 SO) pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth for the Giants to maintain the 6-0 cushion. Patrick Ruotolo (1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) then allowed a run in the bottom of the ninth as Inland Empire broke up the shutout, but managed to slam the door to seal the victory.
Nate Bertness (0-1) suffered the loss out of the 66ers bullpen after yielding five runs (all earned) on seven hits over three innings.
Notes
* San Jose outscored Inland Empire 11-1 over the final two games of the series.
* The Giants posted a 1.59 team ERA during the four-game series.
* San Jose out-hit Inland Empire 13-5 on Sunday. The teams were a combined 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position (Giants 2-for-13, 66ers 1-for-6).
* Marshall was making his first start since the 2016 season. He was limited to just two relief appearances in 2017 due to injury.
* Heyward is 3-for-7 with a double, a home run and four RBI's in two games played to start the season.
On Deck
The Giants continue their road trip on Monday evening with the opener of a three-game series against the Lancaster JetHawks. First pitch at The Hangar is scheduled for 6:35 PM. Raffi Vizcaino is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Lancaster is expected to counter with Logan Longwith. The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com with coverage beginning at 6:15 PM.