The San Jose Giants aren’t ready to let their season end quietly.
Down a game in the California League championship series, San Jose answered Tuesday night with one of the most dramatic performances in franchise history: a combined no-hitter and a 9-1 win over the Lake Elsinore Storm at Excite Ballpark. The victory, built on three pitchers and a late offensive surge, pushed the defending league champions into a winner-take-all Game 3 tonight in San Jose. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
For the Giants, the stakes are simple. They’re trying to capture their ninth Cal League title since becoming the San Francisco Giants’ affiliate in 1988. And after rolling through the regular season at 80-52, winning both the first and second half North Division titles for the first time since 2009, and closing with a 20-2 run before sweeping Stockton in the first round, they were suddenly staring at elimination after Lake Elsinore opened the final series with a 12-1 rout on Sunday.
Tuesday looked shaky for a while, too, even with the no-hit effort unfolding. The Storm scored without recording a hit, taking a 1-0 lead on a steal of home in the third inning. But San Jose kept its composure, and once the offense started stringing together two-out hits, the game flipped hard.
Argenis Cayama handled the first five innings for San Jose, striking out seven of the 21 batters he saw. He breezed through the opening two frames, striking out the side in the second, before running into trouble in the third.
Dawson Willis opened the inning with a walk and moved to second on a balk. Cayama then struck out the next two hitters, but after a passed ball advanced Willis to third and another walk followed, the Storm executed a double steal to go ahead 1-0.
That was as good as it got for Lake Elsinore.
Cayama retired the next seven batters he faced before manager Ydwin Villegas turned to the bullpen. Villegas, who was named Cal League manager of the year for the third straight season this week, got exactly what he needed from two of the organization’s newest arms. Ian Korn, the Giants’ 10th-round draft pick this summer, and Eric Nachtsheim, their sixth-round pick, each set down all six hitters they faced to finish off the third no-hitter in franchise history.
San Jose’s offense, meanwhile, woke up after a quiet Game 1 in which it didn’t score until the top of the ninth. This time the Giants put together 11 hits and did a lot of damage with two outs.
Andy Polanco collected three hits and drove in the tying run with a two-out RBI single in the fourth. Drew Smith followed with a two-out double in the fifth to put San Jose in front for good, 2-1.
From there, the Giants buried the Storm with a three-run sixth and a four-run seventh. The big blow in that stretch came from Josuar Gonzalez, the 18-year-old shortstop viewed as one of the top prospects in the minors, who delivered a two-out, two-run single as part of the late outburst.
San Jose finished with six of its nine runs coming with two outs, a fitting detail for a team that spent Tuesday night refusing to go away.
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