ESCOGICO 9, GIGANTES 6 AT GIGANTES (12 INNINGS)

Batting stars:  Abiatal Avalina was 3-for-4 with two walks and three runs.  Jose Siri was 3-for-6 with two runs.  Ronald Guzman was 2-for-6 with a double.

Pitching stars:  Rogelio Armenteros struck out five in three shutout innings, giving up no hits and one walk.  Randy Rosario pitched a perfect inning.  Montana DuRapau retired all four men he faced, striking out two.  Ramon Ramirez pitched a scoreless inning, walking one and striking out one.  Yunior Marte pitched a scoreless inning despite allowing three walks.

Opposition stars:  Jim Haley was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk.  Josh Lowey pitched three innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits and a walk.  Tai Tiedemann struck out four in two innings, giving up an unearned run on no hits and no walks.

The game:  The Gigantes struck first.  In the first inning Siri singled, Avelino walked, a ground out moved them to second and third, and Kelvin Gutierrez delivered a two-run single.  The lead went to 3-0 in the third when Avalina singled and scored from first on Guzman's double.

Escogido got on the board in the fourth when Wander Franco walked, went to third on a wild pitch-plus-error, and scored on another wild pitch.  Each team scored once in the fifth.  For Escogido, doubles by Otto Lopez and Jimmy Paredes plated the run.  For the Gigantes Siri singled, stole second, and scored on an Avalina single, making the score 4-2.

It went to 5-2 in the seventh when Avalina walked, went to third on Guzman's single, and scored on an error.  In the eighth, however, Escogido scored three times to tie it.  Ivan Castillo doubled and Franco singled, putting men on first and third.  A ground out scored a run and Haley's single again put men on first and third.  A hit batsman loaded the bases and Julio Y. Rodriguez hit a two-run single, knotting the score at 5-5.

There was no score in the ninth.  There was no score in the tenth.  There was no score in the eleventh.  So, in the twelfth, we used the "start with a man on second" rule.  For Escogido, a strikeout and a walk put men on first and second.  Haley doubled home the go-ahead run, a sacrifice fly brought home another, a walk and a hit batsman filled the bases, and Tres Barrera's two-run single made it 9-5 Escogido.  The Gigantes scored one on an error, but did not bring the tying run up to bat.

WP:  Tiedemann (1-0).  LP:  Ryan Kussmaul (0-1).  S:  None.

Notes:  Gigantes batters walked nine men and hit five.

The Gigantes again had a ton of at-bats with men in scoring position and could not cash them in.  They went 2-for-22 with men in scoring position, stranding twelve.  Escogido was 6-for-20 with men in scoring position, stranding eleven.

The Gigantes used twelve pitchers, six of them for less than an inning.  I couldn't tell if they have a three-batter minimum rule, as each pitcher who faced fewer than three batters did so to end an inning.

The Gigantes have opened with two extra-inning games.  I don't suppose that's a record or anything, but it does seem at least somewhat unusual.

Record:  The Gigantes are 1-1, tied for second place with three other teams, a half game behind the Toros del Este.

Next game:  The Gigantes host Aguilas tonight.