Super Mario Hits Two Homers in 8-4 Win Over Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. — Mario Gomez powered up the Ports in game four at Chukchansi Park, hitting two home runs to spark Stockton to an 8-4 win over the Grizzlies to tie the series at 2-2.

The A’s 11th round pick in this year’s draft, Kyle Robinson, made his pro debut on Friday night, and settled in nicely after a bumpy first inning to keep the Ports in the game. The Texas Tech product allowed a double that was barely fair down the left field line to the first batter he faced, then walked and hit the next two.

Robinson allowed a sac fly to Blake Wright and an RBI base hit to Kelvin Hidalgo for an early 2-0 Fresno lead, but got a pop up and a ground out to prevent anymore damage. He quickly retired the first two batters of the second inning, and got a strikeout looking of Caleb Hobson to end the second and complete his first pro start.

Gomez belted a 420-foot, solo home run (2) in the top of the second inning to make it a one-run game, and extended his on-base streak to 11 games. The Ports would take the lead in the fourth, when Darlyn Montero’s second hit of the game scored Gomez to tie it at 2-2, and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer singled to left to score Myles Naylor for a 3-2 advantage.

The Ports poured it on in the fifth inning, scoring four runs to go up 7-2. Rodney Green Jr. scored from third on a ground ball hit to third by Dereck Salom, as Wright had to go down to a kneed to field it at the hot corner, and couldn’t nab the speedy Green Jr. at the plate for the first run of the inning.

That was followed by Gomez’ second home run of the night (3), this time a two-run shot out to deep right for a 6-2 lead. Kuroda-Grauer hit a high chopper to third that ended up being an infield single to score Naylor who walked two batters earlier to extend the lead to 7-2.

Derek Corro and Jose Dicochea were brilliant out of the Ports pen. Corro pitched two perfect innings with three strikeouts to collect the win. Dicochea pitched four innings of one-hit ball, but did walk six batters to four strikeouts in an uncharacteristically wild night for him.

He left with two runners aboard that belonged to him, and they would come in to score against the oft-worked Mark Adamiak in the ninth to make it an 8-4 score. But Salom ended the game on a spectacular, over-the-shoulder, running near the line into shallow left to leave the bases full of Grizzlies.

UP NEXT:
RHP Tzu-Chen Sha will start for the Ports against the Grizzlies RHP Brayan Perez for a 6:50 PM first pitch. Single game tickets, mini plans, and group outings are all on sale for the 2024 season. For more information, call the Ports front office at 209-644-1900 or email at [email protected].