Perez Motors Ports to Extra Inning Win in San Jose

SAN JOSE, Ca. – Junior Perez scored from second base on a passed ball with two outs in the top of the 11th inning to break a 4-4 tie as the Ports beat the San Jose Giants 5-4 in extras on Friday night at Excite Ballpark.

The Giants (28-21) got on the board with a three-run first against Ports’ starter Kyle Virbitsky. Grant McCray, Aeverson Arteaga and Vaun Brown generated a run with three straight singles to start the ballgame to give San Jose a 1-0 lead. With runners on second and third and two outs Garrett Frechette singled to right center field to score Arteaga and Brown, extending the Giants’ lead to 3-0.

With one swing of the, Jhoan Paulino tied the ballgame for the Ports (19-30) in the top of the fourth inning. CJ Rodriguez reached with a one out walk against San Jose starter Matt Mikulski and made it to third base on a single to right by Nick Brueser. Paulino then drove a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left-center field to tie the ballgame at three.

With solid performances on the mound, the Ports and Giants were each held scoreless through the ninth. Virbitsky bounced back from a rocky first inning, allowing just three hits over his final 4.2 innings and Jack Owen was dominant in 3.1 innings of shutout relief with five strikeouts.

For the Giants, Tyler Myrick and Trevor McDonald combined to hold the Ports scoreless over four innings to get the game to the tenth.

With McDonald on for his fourth inning of work, the Ports took the lead with a single run in the top of the 10th. Mariano Ricciardi began the inning with a sacrifice bunt to third to start the inning to move Danny Bautista, who began the tenth at second, to third base. After Denzel Clarke followed with a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch, Max Muncy gave the Ports their first lead of the ballgame with a sacrifice fly to deep left center field to score Bautista. Kevin Richards was robbed of a hit with two outs when San Jose third baseman Yorlis Rodriguez made a leaping catch on a line drive to end the inning.

The Giants tied the game with a run in the bottom of the 10th against Hunter Breault. With McCray on second to start the inning, Brown singled up the middle to tie the game at five. The Ports turned a nifty double play to end the inning. With Brown going to second on the pitch, Riley Mahan grounded out to Paulino at third base. Realizing third base was unoccupied, Brown tried to make it to third but was thrown out by Brueser to Paulino getting back to the bag to end the inning.

After CJ Rodriguez lined into a double play to start the top of the 11th, Perez drew a walk on a pitch clock violation and after stealing second base, scored on the passed ball.

Clark Cota retired the Giants in order in the bottom of the 11th, stranding Mahan at second to end the ballgame.

Breault (1-3) got the win for the Ports allowing an unearned run on a hit in the bottom of the tenth, while Jose Cruz (1-1) took the loss for San Jose with an unearned run in the top of the 11th. Cota picked up his first save with a scoreless bottom of the 11th inning.

Winners of two straight in San Jose, the Ports will look to clinch a series split in game five on Saturday night at Excite Ballpark with first pitch at 6:00 pm.