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San Jose beats Bakersfield 12-3 to advance to California League championship series
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Daniel Turpen celebrates after gave 5 save
The San Jose Giants scored three times in the seventh inning and eight times in the eighth and walked away with a 12-3 victory over the Bakersfield Blaze in the fifth and deciding game of the North Division Series Wednesday at Municipal Stadium.
The victory sends the Giants to Adelanto for game one of the California League Championship Series that begins Thursday at Mavericks Stadium. High Desert beat Rancho Cucamonga 11-6 to win the South Division crown.
“I don’t know if I can take much more of this,” says Giants' Manager Andy Skeels. “For the last two days we looked like one of the worst teams in baseball. We came out tonight and I think we looked a little tight. It’s been sort of a hallmark of this club all season that when it really matters they found a way to get it done.”
San Jose’s David Mixon and Bakersfield’s Richard Bleier were locked in a tight pitching duel with Bakersfield leading 3-1 until the bottom of the seventh when the Giants scored three runs to take the lead they never relinquished. They were helped out by four wild pitches, one by Bleier and three from reliever Justin Miller.
Then in the eighth, the wheels really came off for Bakersfield. The Giants sent 13 men to the plate and scored eight times, thanks in part to five walks, two wild pitches and an error. Brian Bocock had the big hit, a two-run double.
Conor Gillaspie got the offense started for San Jose with a solo home run in the fifth inning off Bleier.
“It was a hanging breaking ball,” says Gillaspie, who went three-for-three. “You just try to sit back on the ball. A guy like that he’s not going to overpower you. You look for something up in the zone you can handle. I just got lucky.”
David Quinowski (2-0) pitched one inning and got the win in relief of Mixon, who gave up three runs in six innings. Daniel Turpen picked up the save by shutting out Bakersfield in the eighth and ninth.
Justin Miller (0-2) took the loss for Bakersfield.
Clayton Tanner (1-0) gets the call in game one of the league championship series. The Giants had a 5-2 record against High Desert during the regular season, but the teams haven’t played each other since July 7-9.
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