Longball Guides Ports to Third Straight Win

Box Score

SAN JOSE, Ca.- Lawrence Butler hit a grand slam and Tyler Soderstrom added a three-run shot leading the Ports to their third straight win, 10-5 over the Giants at Excite Ballpark in San Jose on Friday night.

The Ports (28-42) got on the board with two unearned runs in the top of the first. With the bases loaded and two outs against Giants' starter Kyle Harrison, Marco Luciano made a wild throw to second base on a ground ball off the bat of Junior Perez allowing two runs to score and giving the Ports a 2-0 lead.

Leading 2-1 in the fourth inning, Butler padded the Ports' lead with another big swing. With the bases loaded and one out, Butler fouled off eight pitches with two strikes against San Jose reliever Ty Weber before hitting the 14th pitch of the at-bat over the wall in right for his second grand slam of the series to make it 6-1.

The Giants (44-26) cut the Ports' lead to just two scoring once in the seventh on a Luis Toribio single, and twice in the eighth on a two-run home run off the bat of Harrison Freed.

Stockton struck for insurance in the top of the ninth. Robert Puason singled with one out and Butler walked to put runners on first and second with one out for Brayan Buelvas who singled through the left side to make it 7-4. Tyler Soderstrom followed with another long at-bat that ended in a home run, blasting the 12th pitch he saw from Wilkelma Castillo over the wall in right field to give the Ports a 10-4 lead.

The Giants scored once in the ninth on back-to-back hits with two outs against Ports' reliever Oscar Tovar.

Dallas Woolfolk (1-3) got the win for the Ports with three innings of one run ball in relief of starter Pedro Santos. Harrison (1-3) took the loss for San Jose, allowing five runs (three earned) on four hits in 3 1/3 innings.

The Ports will go for their fourth straight victory and a series win in game five of their six game series against the Giants at Excite Ballpark in San Jose with first pitch at 6:00pm.