Late Lead Slips Away, Giants Fall 5-4

MODESTO, CA - The Modesto Nuts rallied late Thursday night scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game before plating the go-ahead run in the eighth en route to a 5-4 victory over the Giants at John Thurman Field. With the loss, San Jose (26-21) dropped two out of three games in the series.
Sandro Fabian (3-for-4, 2 2B, HR, RBI) doubled twice and homered to lead the Giants offensively in defeat. Frandy De La Rosa (3-for-4) also produced three hits while Jalen Miller (1-for-5, 2B) extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
San Jose starting pitcher Logan Webb fired four scoreless innings with just one hit allowed. The right-hander walked two and struck out two during his dominant outing.
The Giants built a 3-0 lead with single tallies in the second, fourth and fifth innings. In the top of the second, Fabian led off with a double into the left field corner before De La Rosa singled. Kevin Rivera then delivered an RBI groundout to put San Jose in front.
In the fourth, Fabian led off with a towering home run down the left field line to make it 2-0 - his fourth round-tripper of the season. An inning later, Miller doubled with two outs and immediately scored when the next batter, Wander Franco, blasted a triple to the fence in deep right center.
After Webb breezed through the first four innings, Carlos Sano (2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO) entered from the San Jose bullpen to begin the bottom of the fifth and immediately ran into trouble. A one-out single from Joe Rizzo started the rally before back-to-back walks to Gareth Morgan and Garrett Kennedy loaded the bases. Kevin Santa was up next and he lifted a sacrifice fly to left to bring home the first Modesto run. Bryson Brigman then singled sharply into right plating Morgan to trim the Giants lead to 3-2.
San Jose got one run back in the top of the sixth as Fabian led off with a double into the right center field gap - his third extra-base hit of the game. De La Rosa then reached on a bunt single moving Fabian to third before a Rivera sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 4-2.
Sano bounced back with a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth, but struggled in the seventh as the Nuts rallied to tie the game. Consecutive walks to Nick Zammarelli and Rizzo started the inning before Morgan grounded an RBI single into left to bring Modesto to within 4-3. Peter Lannoo was then summoned from the bullpen to replace Sano. Kennedy was up next and he dropped down a bunt in an attempt to advance the runners, but reached safely himself when the Giants failed to cover first base. With the bases loaded, Lannoo came back to strikeout Santa for the first out of the inning. Brigman then hit a slow grounder to third that saw the Giants force out Kennedy at second, but San Jose was unable to turn the inning-ending double play as Rizzo scored to tie the game 4-4.
San Jose threatened to reclaim the lead in the top of the eighth as De La Rosa singled with two outs before Rivera worked a 12-pitch walk, but new Nuts pitcher Wyatt Mills retired Brandon Van Horn on a fly out to right to end the inning.
Lannoo returned to the mound in the bottom of the eighth and saw Modesto immediately put the go-ahead run in scoring position as Evan White led off with a bloop double into shallow left center. Kyle Lewis then reached on an infield single to shortstop and when Van Horn's throw to first bounced away from De La Rosa for an error, White advanced to third. Zammarelli then ripped a single into right center field to easily score White with the go-ahead run.
With the Nuts ahead by a run, Mills induced three straight groundouts in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to finish the game.
Mills (3-0), who retired all four batters he faced in his relief outing, earned the win for Modesto.
Lannoo (0-1) was saddled with the loss for the Giants after yielding the game-deciding run in the bottom of the eighth. Lannoo pitched two innings out of the bullpen with four hits and one unearned run surrendered. He struck out four.
Notes
* The Giants fell to 3-3 on their road trip.
* San Jose had won three straight road series' prior to dropping two out of three games to Modesto. The Giants were attempting to win a fourth consecutive road series for the first time since the 2013 season.
* Webb lowered his ERA to 1.80. He has not allowed a run over his last three starts (10 innings).
* Fabian has hit two home runs on the road trip (five games played).
* San Jose out-hit Modesto 12-8.
* The Nuts went 5-for-12 (.417 AVG) with runners in scoring position.
* Miller's hit streak is the second-longest by a Giants player this season (Matt Winn - 16 games).
* Bryce Johnson (2-for-5) and Johneshwy Fargas (2-for-5) also had multi-hit games.
* San Jose is now 8-8 against Modesto this year.
* The Giants fell to two games behind Stockton (28-19) for first place in the first half North Division race. 23 games remain in the half.
* Pitcher Dylan Rheault returned to San Jose from Sacramento (AAA) before the game on Thursday.
On Deck
The Giants continue their road trip on Friday evening with the opener of a three-game series against the Lake Elsinore Storm. First pitch at The Diamond is scheduled for 7:00 PM. Sandro Cabrera (6-0, 3.46 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Lake Elsinore is expected to counter with Pedro Avila (3-2, 3.86 ERA). The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com with coverage beginning at 6:40 PM.