Quakes Edge Giants, 5-4

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA - The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes scored five runs over the first four innings and then held off the Giants late in a 5-4 victory on Friday night at LoanMart Field. San Jose (35-37 overall, 1-1 second half) was held to just five hits in the contest as the teams have now split the first two games of their second half-opening series.
Heath Quinn (1-for-4, HR, 2 RBI) smacked a two-run home run to extend his hitting streak to 15 games in the loss.
The Quakes never trailed scoring twice in the bottom of the first against Giants starter Mac Marshall to take an early 2-0 lead. With one out, Rylan Bannon drew a walk before Cody Thomas stepped to the plate and belted a two-run home run to straightaway center. The homer was Thomas' second of the series and fifth this season.
San Jose though would immediately answer with two runs of their own in the top of the second to tie the game. Gio Brusa led off with a double to deep left center before Sandro Fabian worked a walk. John Riley then flied out to center advancing Brusa to third. Tanner Murphy was up next and he laced a line drive into shallow center for a hit. Rancho Cucamonga center fielder Jeren Kendall attempting to make a lunging catch, but saw the ball bounce under his glove and roll back towards the warning track. Both Brusa and Fabian scored to make it 2-2 while Murphy advanced to third. Murphy was credited with a single and one RBI on the play. Murphy, however, was ultimately stranded at third as Quakes starter Dustin May induced the next two hitters, Brandon Van Horn and Bryce Johnson, to both pop out.
After Marshall struck out two in a scoreless bottom of the second, the Giants left-hander would run into more trouble in the third. Kendall led off with a walk before stealing second. Bannon then ripped a double into the left field corner to plate Kendall with the go-ahead run. A walk to Thomas followed prompting a pitching change as DJ Myers was summoned from the bullpen. Two batters later, Omar Estevez singled into left to bring home Thomas for a 4-2 Rancho Cucamonga advantage.
The Quakes then pushed their lead to 5-2 with another run in the bottom of the fourth. A Jared Walker one-out walk put a runner on base for Rancho Cucamonga before Bannon delivered a two-out RBI double.
Meanwhile, May settled down for Rancho Cucamonga and worked three straight perfect innings over the third, fourth and fifth frames. May had retired 11 straight San Jose hitters until Jalen Miller struck out to begin the top of the sixth, but reached safely when the pitch bounced away from catcher Connor Wong. Two batters later, Quinn crushed a two-run home run to left to bring the Giants within 5-4. The homer was Quinn's fifth of the season.
San Jose threatened further in the top of the sixth as Brusa also reached on a dropped third strike before a walk to Fabian put runners on first and second. New pitcher Jason Richman though induced Riley to ground into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
In the seventh, Van Horn singled with one out, but was stranded when Richman retired the next two batters. Marshall Kasowski then set down the Giants 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth to maintain the one-run Quakes lead.
With the score still 5-4, San Jose put the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the ninth, but would fall short. Fabian was hit by a pitch to start the inning before he was removed in favor of pinch-runner Johneshwy Fargas. Fargas promptly stole second for the Giants to put the tying run into scoring position. Kasowski came back to strikeout Riley, but a four-pitch walk to pinch-hitter Jacob Heyward followed to put the go-ahead run on base. Van Horn was up next, however he struck out swinging for the second out of the inning. Then with Johnson at the plate, miscommunication on the bases on a pitch that was dropped by the catcher Wong resulted in Fargas getting caught in a rundown between second and third. Fargas was eventually tagged out by the third baseman Cristian Santana to end the game and leave Johnson in the batters box.
May (3-3) earned the win after tossing 5 1/3 innings with four runs (three earned) allowed. He gave up four hits, walked one and struck out seven. Kasowski worked two hitless innings to finish the game for his third save of the season.
Marshall (0-1) was tagged for four runs (all earned) over two-plus innings to take his first loss this year. He surrendered three hits, walked three and struck out three.
Notes
* The Giants were attempting to win three straight games for the first time since May 9-11.
* Rancho Cucamonga out-hit San Jose 10-5.
* The Giants were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
* Quinn owns the second-longest hit streak by a San Jose player this season (Matt Winn - 16 games).
* Wander Franco (0-for-4) saw his hitting streak snapped at 13 games.
* Myers (3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO) and Peter Lannoo (3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO) combined to pitch six innings of relief with one run allowed.
* Marshall surrendered his first home run of the season (23 2/3 innings).
* The Giants played their league-high tying 27th one-run game this year (12-15 record).
On Deck
The Giants and Quakes continue their four-game series on Saturday evening with first pitch at LoanMart Field scheduled for 7:05 PM. Raffi Vizcaino (4-4, 4.55 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Rancho Cucamonga is expected to counter with Parker Curry (4-1, 4.30 ERA). The game can be heard live on sjgiants.com with coverage beginning at 6:45 PM.