Payne's 10th Inning Hit Lifts Giants To 2-1 Victory
SAN JOSE - Shawn Payne's single in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Bobby Haney from third base with the winning run to lift the San Jose Giants to a 2-1 victory over the Stockton Ports on Thursday evening at Municipal Stadium. Mac Williamson tied the game for San Jose with an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh before Payne's 10th inning hit propelled the Giants to the walk-off win. The victory snaps San Jose's season-high four-game losing streak and improves their overall record to 47-31.
Josh Osich (3-1) earned the win out of the bullpen with a scoreless top of the 10th inning. Osich worked around a pair of two-out singles and a wild pitch to keep the game tied.
Kyle Crick started on the mound for the Giants and fired five dominant scoreless innings. The right-hander allowed just three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts during his 77-pitch performance. Crick has now thrown a total of nine shutout innings with 18 strikeouts in two starts since coming off of the disabled list.
Ports starter Tanner Peters took a perfect game into the seventh inning and retired 19 straight batters to begin his outing. Skyler Stromsmoe gave San Jose their first baserunner of the night when he clubbed a one-out double off the wall in the bottom of the seventh. Stromsmoe then advanced to third on a two-out wild pitch and scored the tying run when Williamson grounded a double down the left field line.
Cody Hall (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO) breezed through a perfect top of the eighth for the Giants before pitching around a one-out error in the ninth inning to keep the game tied.
San Jose had an opportunity to win in the bottom of the ninth as Brock Bond drew a leadoff walk before moving to second on Stromsmoe's sacrifice bunt. Angel Villalona was then intentionally walked, but Stockton reliever Seth Frankoff registered back-to-back swinging strikeouts of Williamson and Devin Harris to send the game to extra-innings.
In the top of the 10th, Osich recorded a pair of one-pitch outs to start the inning before consecutive singles from Myrio Richard and Antonio Lamas. A wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third, but Osich recovered to strikeout Rashun Dixon on a 1-2 pitch to end the threat.
The Giants then pushed across a run in the bottom of the 10th to secure the walk-off victory. With one out, Haney drew a five-pitch walk. John Polonius then lined a single into center to move Haney, the potential winning run, to third base. Payne was up next and he hit a soft line drive into shallow right center field for a single to easily score Haney and spark a wild celebration of San Jose players near first base.
Ryan Dull (0-1), who entered the game to begin the bottom of the 10th for the Ports, was saddled with the loss.
Stockton's only run of the contest came in the top of the sixth against Jose Casilla (2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO) as Addison Russell reached on an error to leadoff, moved to third on Max Muncy's single and scored when Tony Thompson grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Casilla managed to strand five runners on base over the sixth and seventh innings to keep the deficit at 1-0.
Notes: The Giants are 4-4 in extra-inning games this season … San Jose has won their last three extra-inning games … Thursday's victory was also the Giants' third walk-off win of the year … Stockton out-hit San Jose by a 9-5 margin … Crick (1 ER/18.2 IP) lowered his season ERA to 0.48 … Giants pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts and just one walk … The Ports were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base … San Jose improved to a league-best 13-5 in one-run games.
On Deck: The Giants and Ports continue their four-game series on Friday evening with first pitch at Municipal Stadium scheduled for 7:00 PM. Adalberto Mejia (2-1, 3.81 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Stockton is expected to counter with Raul Alcantara (1-0, 0.00 ERA). It's a KRTY Family Friday and Breast Cancer Awareness Night presented by KRTY and Sutter Home at the ballpark and tickets can be purchased by calling (408) 297-1435 or by visiting sjgiants.com. The game will also be televised live on Comcast Hometown Network, Channel 104.