San Jose extends championship series
By: ED WEHDE - Staff Writer | ∞
SAN JOSE ---- The Storm will have to keep the champagne on ice for at least another night.
After beating San Jose in the first two games in the best-of-five California League Championship Series, Lake Elsinore missed its first chance to capture the title, falling prey to San Jose's pitching staff and losing 2-0 in Game 3 at San Jose Municipal Stadium on Saturday.
Led by starter Joe Martinez, the Giants staff held the Storm to five hits and never let a runner get past first base while handing them their sixth shutout of the season.
"It was a good game," Storm manager Carlos Lezcano said. "They just did a good job pitching. You have to give credit to Martinez and their relievers. They got the job done."
The Storm will get another chance to pop the corks tonight starting at 5 p.m.in San Jose.
"We have to come back (today) and play like we've been playing, doing everything we've been doing," Lezcano said. "It just didn't go our way (Saturday)."
Martinez was a .500 pitcher in the regular season and was lit up for six runs in 4 1/3 innings by Visalia in the North Division Finals, but he was extremely sharp while shutting down the Storm for six innings Saturday.
The Storm got one hit in each of the first three innings, but Martinez faced just the minimum during that span because of a double-play, a caught stealing and a pickoff.
"That's what you need when you're trying to stay alive in a playoff situation," Giants manager Lenn Sakata said. "Martinez kept the ball down, and (Jason ) Waddell and (Sergio) Romo obviously did a good job."
Waddell relieved Martinez to open the seventh and went 3-0 on the first batter he faced, Sean Kazmar, but rebounded to strike out the Storm shortstop, then also got David Freese and Craig Cooper on strikes. Romo threw the final two innings to earn the save.
"It was just one of those games where we couldn't find any holes," Storm third baseman David Freese said. "Martinez pitched a real good game and (Storm starter Stephen) Faris pitched a good game. It was a good pitching duel and they came out on top.
"We're still in the driver's seat. We just have to come out and score some runs early and, hopefully, put them away."
San Jose jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Ben Copeland singled, stole second and moved to third when catcher Jose Lobaton's throw to second sailed into center field. From there, he scored on Fred Lewis' sacrifice fly to the warning track in center.
"It's always important (to score early) because we don't score a lot of runs," Sakata said. "When we can stake our starter to something, then get to Romo and Waddell, it's important. That's the script."
Anthony Contreras, who hit one homer in 419 regular-season at-bats, ripped the first pitch he saw from Storm starter Stephen Faris in the fifth inning over the right-field wall for his second homer of the season and a 2-0 Giants lead.
The hit ended a streak of 10 straight hitters retired by Faris.
Faris gave up the two runs on five hits in six innings. Greg Burke followed with a 1-2-3 seventh, and Wilton Lopez worked around an error and an intentional walk in a scoreless eighth."
Et cetera
Giants IF Travis Denker was out of the lineup Saturday after injuring his shoulder in a collision at home plate with Storm C Lobaton on Friday. Denker had been 4-for-8 with a pair of runs and an RBI in the series. ... Storm hitting coach Max Venable, who was coaching first base, was ejected by first base umpire Adam Hamari after arguing the call when Hamari ruled that Craig Cooper had been picked off first base by Joe Martinez in the second inning. ... Josh Alley singled in the ninth inning to stretch his playoff-long hit streak to 10 games. ... Eleven years ago Saturday, the Storm beat San Jose at The Diamond to earn their first Cal League championship.
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