Guante Shines, Bullpen Solid as Ports Blank Giants 3-0

San Jose, CA – Three pitchers combined to deliver the Ports’ sixth shutout of the season and every hitter in Stockton’s lineup had at least one hit as the Ports defeated the San Jose Giants 3-0 at Excite Ballpark in the South Bay on Saturday evening.

The Ports (49-82) opened the scoring in the top of the fourth inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Bjay Cooke lined a single up the middle to score Cooper Uhl from third and Yeniel Laboy from second to give the Ports a 2-0 lead.

In the sixth, the Ports added on when Myles Naylor drilled the first pitch of the inning over the wall in left center for a solo home run to make it 3-0 Stockton.

The three-run lead was plenty for three Ports’ pitchers who wiggled free of a few threats to put together a dominant outing. In the third inning, the Giants (68-63) put runners on second and third with one out but Ports’ starter got a groundball from Bryce Eldridge to the drawn-in infield and struck out Quinn McDaniel to extinguish the threat.

Reliever Yunior Tur finished 2.1 scoreless innings when he navigated through a first-and-second, two-out situation in the eighth with a strikeout of McDaniel, and Blaze Pontes left the bases loaded in the ninth to end the ballgame.

Guante (3-6) got the win for Stockton with his third straight scoreless outing, blanking the Giants over 5.2 innings with a career-high-tying eight strikeouts. San Jose starter Esmerlin Vinicio (4-9) took the loss surrendering two runs on four hits over four innings. Pontes pitched around a pair of errors and left the bases loaded in the ninth to pick up his 11^th save.

The Ports conclude their season looking for win number 50 on Sunday afternoon in San Jose with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 pm.