MODESTO, Calif. - The Stockton Ports won their third straight game and made it 12 of their last 14 on Thursday night at John Thurman Field. Stockton got out to a 6-0 lead and hung on late for an 8-4 victory over the Modesto Nuts to make it back-to-back victories
MODESTO, Calif. - The Stockton Ports won their third straight game and made it 12 of their last 14 on Thursday night at John Thurman Field. Stockton got out to a 6-0 lead and hung on late for an 8-4 victory over the Modesto Nuts to make it back-to-back victories to open their five-game series.
Ports starter James Kaprielian issued a leadoff walk to Joe Rizzo and then proceeded to retire his final nine batters to end his outing. Kaprielian struck out two and threw 34 pitches, 27 for strikes.
Stockton's offense scored the first run of the game in the third. Nick Allen doubled to open the inning and advanced to third on a passed ball before scoring on a groundout by Alfonso Rivas. The Ports came up big in the fifth inning with four runs to open up their lead. With two on and nobody out, Allen, who went 3-for-5 with three extra-base hits, tripled to left-center to make it 3-0. Allen scored three batters later on a double by Jeremy Eierman to make it 4-0. Eierman would score on the next play when Jonah Bride reached on an infield single and a throwing error committed by Nuts third baseman Johnny Adams.
Nuts starter Ian McKinney (4-4) would face Trace Loehr and gave up a single to start the sixth inning before being lifted for Scott Boches. Boches gave up a double to Robert Mullen and then got Mickey McDonald to ground out, a play that scored Loehr from third and made it a 6-0 Stockton advantage.
McKinney suffered the loss, going five-plus innings and allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits while striking out nine. Boches would work two scoreless innings in relief for Modesto.
Xavier Altamirano (2-3) took over for Kaprielian in the fourth and kept Modesto out of the run column until the sixth, when Joe Rizzo and Keegan McGovern hit back-to-back solo homers to make it 6-2. Those were the only runs allowed by Altamirano in four innings as he picked up the win, allowing four hits while striking out four.
Will Gilbert took over in the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to McGovern followed by a walk to J.P. Crawford. Cal Raleigh came up next and drove them both in with a double to left to make it 6-4. Gilbert was then lifted for Seth Martinez (SV, 1). After Jake Scheiner laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Raleigh to third, Martinez fielded a weak tapper off the bat of Jack Larsen and threw to first off of his back foot for the out that kept Raleigh at third base. Eugene Helder came up next and grounded out to the shortstop Allen who ranged far to his left to make the play to preserve the two-run Stockton advantage.
Stockton reupped its lead in the top of the ninth as the Ports scored two runs off of Modesto reliever Joey Gerber. With runners at second and third and nobody out, Rivas hit a sac-fly to center to score McDonald who'd walked to open the frame. Allen, who ended up at third after the sac-fly, scored on a wild pitch to make it an 8-4 lead. Gerber allowed two runs over an inning-and-a-third.
Martinez came back for the bottom of the ninth and, with two on and one out, got McGovern to hit into a game-ending double-play to earn his first save of the season.
Thursday's contest marked the fourth straight error-free game played by the Ports.
The Ports and Nuts play the third game of their five-game set on Friday night at John Thurman Field. Mitchell Jordan (4-4, 5.29 ERA) makes the start for Stockton, opposed by Modesto right-hander Austin Hutchison (2-7, 4.94 ERA). First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. PDT.
