Miller, Rawhide Cruise Past Giants

SAN JOSE, CA - Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Shelby Miller struck out 10 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings during his his rehab start in an 8-0 Visalia Rawhide victory over the San Jose Giants on Saturday evening at Municipal Stadium. The Giants (33-36) were shutout for the second straight game to open the series and have now lost 11 out of their last 14 overall.
Miller, who made his second rehab start against San Jose this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, allowed just three singles and did not issue a walk during his dominant outing to pick-up the win. The right-hander retired 19 out of the 22 batters he faced.
Johneshwy Fargas (2-for-3) had a pair of singles to lead the Giants offensively in defeat. San Jose finished the contest with only three hits.
Offensively, Visalia did all of their damage over two innings scoring four runs in the top of the fifth before a four-run seventh. The game was scoreless through four innings before the Rawhide broke through against Giants reliever DJ Myers. Back-to-back singles from Adam Walton and Luis Silverio started the fifth before a Raymel Flores sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third. Stephen Smith followed with a grounder to shortstop that was fielded by Brandon Van Horn, but his hurried throw home was late as Walton scored the first run of the game. Smith reached first on the fielder's choice while Silverio advanced to third. Marcus Wilson followed with an RBI groundout as Silverio scored before a Camden Duzenack single knocked Myers out of the game. Jeff Burke (2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO) was summoned from the San Jose bullpen, but he promptly allowed a double to deep right center off the bat of Dominic Mirogilo as Smith and Duzenack both came home to make it 4-0.
The Rawhide then broke the game open with four more runs in the top of the seventh. Smith singled to begin the frame before Duzenack singled with one out. Mirogilo then singled home Smith for a 5-0 advantage. Following a Mark Karaviotis single, Ramon Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly to right plating Duzenack to make it 6-0. An errant throw home from right fielder Sandro Fabian on the play also advanced Mirogilo to third and Karaviotis to second before Walton delivered a two-RBI single stretching the lead to 8-0.
Meanwhile, the Giants managed only three baserunners for the entire game. Wander Franco singled with two outs in the bottom of the first, but was stranded when Miller came back to strikeout Gio Brusa. In the second, Fargas reached on a two-out bunt single, but was picked-off by Miller. Then in the fifth, Fargas singled with two outs and stole second, but Miller struck out Tanner Murphy to end the inning.
Miller struck out two batters in the bottom of the first, two batters in the third, struck out the side in the fifth, fanned two more in the sixth before finishing his start with a strikeout in the bottom of the seventh. Tyler Mark relieved Miller with two outs in the seventh inning and retired the only batter he faced to quickly end the inning. Kevin McCanna then struck out three over two perfect innings in the eighth and ninth to complete the shutout.
Myers (3-2) was charged with four runs (all earned) over 1 2/3 innings of relief to take the loss for San Jose. He allowed three hits, walked one and struck out one.
Mac Marshall started on the mound for the Giants and fired three scoreless innings. Marshall surrendered one hit, walked one and struck out four during his 45-pitch performance. He finished his start by setting down eight straight Rawhide hitters.
Notes
* Visalia has outscored San Jose 14-0 over the first two games of the series.
* The Giants have been shutout in back-to-back games for the first time since April 24-25, 2015 (at Bakersfield).
* San Jose has been shutout three times in the last four games.
* Miller has pitched 11 2/3 innings with just one run allowed, no walks and 18 strikeouts in his two rehab starts against the Giants (May 29 and Saturday).
* Franco extended his hitting streak to 11 games with his first-inning single. Jalen Miller's (0-for-4) hit streak was snapped at 10 games.
* Marshall was making his first appearance since May 14. He was activated from the disabled list before the game on Saturday. Myers was also reinstated from the DL on Saturday and was making his first appearance since May 18.
* In other roster moves Saturday, pitchers Orleny Quiroz and Doug Still were transferred to Salem-Keizer (Short-Season level).
* Visalia out-hit San Jose 12-3. The Rawhide were 5-for-15 with runners in scoring position compared to 0-for-1 for the Giants.
* The trio of Visalia pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts and no walks.
On Deck
The Giants host the Rawhide on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the first half. First pitch at Municipal Stadium is scheduled for 1:00 PM. Raffi Vizcaino (3-4, 4.88 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Visalia is expected to counter with Riley Smith (3-3, 3.82 ERA). For tickets to the Father's Day game, call (408) 297-1435 or visit sjgiants.com.