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| Giants Blank Ports, 7-0, In Season-Opener |
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By Joe Ritzo 4/5/2007
Three pitchers combine on three-hit shutout in season-opening win
Joe Martinez worked the first
five innings to record the victory (photo by Barry Colla) |
Joe Martinez, Taylor Wilding, and Kelvin Pichardo combined on a three-hit shutout to lead the San Jose Giants to a convincing 7-0 victory over the Stockton Ports in the 2007 season-opener. Offensively, the Giants mustered nine hits, including six from the bottom-third of the batting order. David Maroul led the attack with a 3-for-4, 2 2B performance at the plate.
San Jose received an outstanding effort from Martinez, who paced the Augusta Greenjackets (Low-A) club last season with a 15-5 record. The 24-year old went the first five innings Thursday night surrendering just two hits with three walks and six strikeouts. Martinez twice pitched out of trouble as Stockton put runners on first and second with none out in the bottom of the second, but failed to score when Javier Herrera struck out and Luke Appert bounced into a double play.
In the bottom of the fourth, Stockton put runners on the corners with none out, but Martinez bore down to strike out Anthony Recker before a double play off the bat of Herrera to keep the Ports off the scoreboard. Martinez threw 77 pitches during his stint on the mound.
The Giants wasted little time jumping on Stockton starting pitcher Jared Lansford with a single run in the top of the first, two runs in the second, and one more in the third for a 4-0 advantage.
In the first inning, #2 hitter Antoan Richardson started the rally with a walk, promptly stole second base, and advanced to third on Ben Copeland’s single to left field. Will Thompson was up next and the San Jose first baseman hammered a ball to deep center field that was caught by a leaping Herrera for a sacrifice fly as Richardson raced to the plate.
The Giants kept the pressure on in the second inning as a one-out single from Adam Witter followed by a Maroul double put a pair of runners in scoring position. Witter scored on an Anthony Contreras sacrifice fly before Maroul crossed home plate when catcher Barry Gunther delivered a clutch two-out single.
In the third, Richardson started another rally with a leadoff walk before eventually scoring four batters later on a Witter sacrifice fly.
Wilding dominated during his long-relief stint firing three impressive innings with just one hit allowed. The right-hander surrendered a single to Cliff Pennington to begin his outing before setting down the next nine Stockton hitters that came to the plate. Wilding finished with three strikeouts.
San Jose added to their lead with two runs in the top of the sixth when Maroul doubled with two outs and scored on a Contreras single. Contreras later scored on an error for a 6-0 cushion.
The Giants completed the scoring in the top of the ninth when Gunther tripled to lead off and scored on Emmanuel Burriss’ ground out.
Pichardo finished the contest with a perfect bottom of the ninth inning.
Notes: The Giants led the California League in team ERA last season at 3.85 … They also recorded nine shutouts … Richardson, who stole a base in the first inning, led all San Francisco Giants minor leaguers in steals last season with 66 … Giants pitchers combined for ten strikeouts … Burriss, a first round draft pick (33rd overall selection) last year, went 0-for-5 with an RBI in his California League debut … Gunther (2-for-4, 3B, RBI) and Copeland (2-for-5) also contributed multi-hit games at the plate … The game was witnessed by 5,124 fans at Banner Island Ballpark.
Click here to view Box Score
Click here to view Game Log
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