LANCASTER, Calif. - Stockton Ports starting pitcher Brian Howard (4-3) got his first taste of The Hangar on Saturday night and experienced firsthand why it's one of the toughest venues for pitchers in all of baseball. Howard surrendered a career-high three home runs as the Lancaster JetHawks handed the Ports
LANCASTER, Calif. - Stockton Ports starting pitcher Brian Howard (4-3) got his first taste of The Hangar on Saturday night and experienced firsthand why it's one of the toughest venues for pitchers in all of baseball. Howard surrendered a career-high three home runs as the Lancaster JetHawks handed the Ports a narrow 5-4 loss to even their three-game series at a game apiece and set up a rubber game in the finale on Sunday.
A pair of solo homers got the JetHawks on the board first beginning with a leadoff blast by Willie Abreu in the second. After recording the first two outs in the third, Howard yielded a homer to Tyler Nevin that put the Lancaster lead at 2-0.
The Ports tied it in the top of the fourth that began with a leadoff single by Nate Mondou followed by a triple by Skye Bolt that drove in Stockton's first run of the night. Bolt would score on an ensuing groundout by Jonah Heim to knot the game at 2-2.
The JetHawks jumped back in front in the fifth. Carlos Herrera led off with an infield single and, two batters later, Roberto Ramos was hit by a pitch to put two aboard. Nevin came up next and hit a double-play ball to third, but third baseman Brallan Perez made an errant throw to second base that wound up in right field resulting in a run that gave the JetHawks a 3-2 lead. With runners at the corners and one out following the error, Howard induced back-to-back pop flies to the infield to avoid further damage.
Stockton pulled in front for the first time in the top of the sixth. With one out, Dairon Blanco tripled and scored two batters later on an RBI single by Luke Persico. Two batters later with two outs, Perez singled to center to score Sandber Pimentel who'd walked earlier in the inning to give the Ports a 4-3 lead.
The two runs in the sixth were the last runs allowed by the JetHawks and the last runs given up by starter Brandon Gold (4-3), who would earn the win after going 6.1 innings and allowing eight hits while striking out three.
Howard came back for the bottom of the sixth and, with one out, gave up his third home run of the night, a solo blast to Max George that tied the game at 4-4. Forrest Wall followed with a double to left and Herrera came up next and doubled to right to score Wall and make it a 5-4 Lancaster lead, at which point Howard was lifted from the game.
Howard suffered the loss, going 5.1 innings and allowing five runs (four earned) on a career-high 10 hits while striking out three.
Gold came on to pitch the seventh for the JetHawks and gave up back-to-back singles to Mondou and Bolt, but on Bolt's single to left Mondou tried to go from first to third base and was thrown out by the left fielder Wall. Gold was then lifted for Justin Lawrence who would pitch an inning-and-two-thirds scoreless without allowing a hit.
Reid Humphreys (SV, 12) set the side down in order in the ninth and recorded a pair of strikeouts in notching his league-leading 12th save of the season.
Sam Sheehan and Miguel Romero combined for two-and-two-thirds scoreless innings of relief down the stretch for the Ports.
The Ports and JetHawks wrap up their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in a matinee at The Hangar. Left-hander Zack Erwin (3-3, 4.22 ERA) makes the start for Stockton, opposed by Lancaster right-hander Rico Garcia (5-4, 3.19 ERA). First pitch is set for 2:05 p.m. PDT.
