San Jose Giants top Modesto, pull to within game of Nuts for second-half lead

The Modesto Nuts lost their series opener with the San Jose Giants, falling 5-1 Monday night at John Thurman Field.

In the race for the California League’s second-half North Division title, the Nuts saw their lead slip to one game over the Giants. With Visalia’s 11-6 win over Stockton, however, Modesto maintained a four-game cushion over the Ports and Giants in the wild-card race.

San Jose scored twice in the third inning to jump out front. That’s good for any team but especially for the Giants, who have won 19 consecutive times when scoring first.

The Giants built a 5-0 lead with three more in the fifth, but the Nuts got one back in the bottom of the frame on Wilson Soriano’s one-out single that plated Correlle Prime.

Modesto had an opportunity in the sixth, loading the bases with one out off starter Luis Ysla with Prime, one of the Nuts’ hottest hitters over the past 10 days, striding to the plate.

San Jose skipper Russ Morman brought in right-hander Ian Gardeck to replace the southpaw Ysla. Gardeck’s first offering was a 96-mph heater that Prime fouled off. Prime let a 97-mph fastball go by before fouling off another.

“I just missed a couple of fastballs,” said Prime, who insisted he was thinking about his grand slam in an 8-5 win over Visalia on Saturday night. “You know you’re going to get the nasty stuff then.”

Gardeck then threw Prime a wicked 88-mph slider that the Nuts first baseman cut on and missed.

“I’ve faced Prime a few times this season and done pretty well,” Gardeck said. “I was just trying to minimize the damage, looking for a double play ball.”

Catcher Wilfredo Rodriguez then grounded out on the first pitch he saw, a 98-mph fastball, as Gardeck ended the threat.

San Jose second baseman Jeff Kobernus and shortstop Christian Arroyo opened the third with back-to-back singles. After left fielder Daniel Carbonell flied out to right, first baseman Angel Villalona drilled an opposite-field single to right to plate Kobernus with the first run. Third baseman Ryder Jones then reached on an error to load the bases, and DH Brian Ragira lofted a sacrifice fly to right that drove in Arroyo.

In the fifth, Arroyo led off with a single to left and, after Carbonell popped up, stole second, moved to third on Villalona’s groundout and scored on a double to right by Jones. Ragira then singled in his second run of the game and scored on a “little league home run” thanks to throwing errors by second baseman Wilson Soriano and catcher Wilfredo Rodriguez.

The teams meet again Tuesday night with a share of first-place in the second-half standings on the line.

Nuts notes – Six Modesto players batted .300 or better in July, led by outfielder Dillon Thomas, who hit a scorching .393. … The Nuts and San Jose entered their three-game series Monday with matching 21-10 records since July 1, the best in the California League during that stretch. … It’s been three weeks since Nuts outfielder Jordan Patterson was promoted to Double-A New Britain, Conn., but he still leads the California League in triples by a wide margin. Patterson hit 12 three-baggers while in Modesto. High Desert’s Lewis Brinson, Inland Empire’s Kody Eaves and Lancaster’s Brett Phillips trail Patterson with seven, and none are on pace to pass Patterson, who has yet to hit a triple in the Eastern League. Patterson is off to a good start for the Rock Cats, hitting .364 (20 for 55) in 16 games entering Monday’s action. … Most baseball fans have seen the movie “Bull Durham,” about a minor-league lifer charged with bringing along a ditzy bonus baby while chasing the pitiable minor-league career home run record. Well, the real-life Crash Davis – Toledo Mud Hens third baseman Mike Hessman – hit his 433rd career minor-league dinger in a 10-8 loss to Lehigh Valley in an International League game. He broke the record of Buzz Arlett, who hit 432 round-trippers in the 1920s and ’30s.

This story was originally published August 3, 2015 at 10:38 PM with the headline "San Jose Giants top Modesto, pull to within game of Nuts for second-half lead."