Justin Donatella kept the San Jose offense quiet tonight, rolling through seven innings for the second time this season to shut down the Giants and earn his fourth win. Donatella (W, 4-8) fired three perfect innings and faced the minimum five times, using two double play balls to squash San Jose rallies before they started. He earned his second consecutive winning decision and his fourth win in his past five games after losing his first seven decisions of the year.
Visalia (2-0, 38-34) gave Donatella six runs of support, the first of which came in the second inning when Sergio Alcantara roped a ground-ball double down the first base line to plate Galli Cribbs, who had singled and stolen second earlier in the inning.
The Rawhide scored two more in the fourth when San Jose (0-2, 30-42) suffered a critical error from T.J. Bennett. With runners on first and second, Alcantara bounced a routine grounder to second. Bennett shuffled to his left and then a medium-high hop clanked off of his wrist and into shallow right field. Daniel Lockhart motored around to score from second and Matt McPhearson sped his way to third. The next batter, Austin Byler, hit a sacrifice fly to center to score McPhearson and give Visalia a 3-0 lead.
Giants right-hander Jake McCasland (L, 2-8) was strong for the Giants tonight, allowing only one earned run over six innings while strike out seven and walking one. But he received no support and was saddled with the tough luck loss. The Rawhide plated another three in the seventh inning off of reliever Connor Kaden when Tyler singled home McPhearson and Marty Herum smashed his league-leading 23rd double of the season to score Alcantara and Byler. It gave the Rawhide a 6-0 lead, which they would hold to win 6-1.
Visalia has now won a season-best seven games in a row dating back to the end of the first half, six of which have come against the Giants, who the Rawhide swept to end the first half in San Jose.
The Rawhide will send RHP Bo Takahashi (5-2, 2.36) to the mound Saturday against San Jose lefty Conner Menez (5-3, 3.99). First pitch is at 7pm and tickets are still available at rawhidebaseball.com.