Home Run Barrage Not Enough as Rawhide Fall

SAN JOSE, CA - Jason Morozowski, Stephen Smith, and Dominic Miroglio all hit home runs for the Rawhide tonight but San Jose rallied late and scored an unearned run against Junior Garcia to beat Visalia, 6-5.

Garcia (L, 2-3) had pitched a quiet seventh inning before Drew Ellis misplayed a slow roller to him at third to open the eighth. Jacob Heyward followed by lining a double past Marcus Wilson to the wall to put San Jose (44-51/10-15) on top.
It was the second time this series that the Giants scored the go-ahead run as an unearned run.
Visalia (47-48/10-15) had mounted an early rally against Giants starter Joey Marciano as they scored in the top of the first inning on a double by Renae Martinez. San Jose plated a run against Emilio Vargas in the bottom of the frame, Morozowski homered in the second to put the Rawhide back on top.
Then the Giants got to Vargas again in the second, scoring three runs against the Rawhide ace on three hits, a walk, and two hit batsmen. Wander Franco's bases-loaded, two-out, two-run single was the final strike of frame thanks to a good throw from Morozowski in left that gunned down Jalen Miller trying to take third on the play.
Smith's round-tripper followed a walk to Marcus Wilson in the third, tying the game, and Miroglio's blast, a monster shot to left, put Visalia ahead 5-4 in the fourth.
Vargas was lifted after four innings having already thrown 90 pitches and gave up four runs on six hits while walking four and hitting three additional Giants players.
Miguel Aguilar took over in the fifth and gave up the lead on a Kelvin Beltre double, a Gio Brusa single, and a Jacob Heyward sacrifice fly.
Though the Rawhide would threaten with runners on second and one out in each of the final two innings, they failed to score.
Franklin Van Gurp, Connor Overton, and Frank Rubio (SV, 6) combined to throw 5.1 innings of scoreless relief, holding the Rawhide to just two hits while striking out seven.
With the loss, Visalia has now dropped a season-high five games in a row and they have lost three series in a row. For the first time this year, the Rawhide are below the .500 mark.
Visalia will look to salvage the final game the series in San Jose tomorrow afternoon. The Rawhide will start RHP Connor Grey (6-6, 5.65) against Giants RHP Carlos Sano (1-1, 3.89). First pitch is at 12:30 PM and the live radio broadcast will be available on rawhidebaseball.com.