Rich Harden Guides Stockton Ports Past Visalia Oaks 14-0 in Rehab Start

Wednesday

07May2008

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 at 03:16PM

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com – STOCKTON, Calif. - On a night where the Stockton Ports started Rich Harden (1-0) on a rehab assignment, the offense showed up and stole the show. With the Oakland A’s ace on the hill, the Ports offense exploded for 14 runs on 16 hits as they shut down the Visalia Oaks 14-0 at Banner Island Ballpark. The Ports have now won five straight games, and improve their overall record to 24-8.

Harden, who was making his second rehab start (his first one was on Friday with Triple-A Sacramento), was in control the entire way. He coasted through six scoreless innings and allowed just three hits while striking out nine. Harden hit three batters but did not issue a walk, He threw 68 pitches, 52 of them for strikes.

Meanwhile, the Ports offense took care of business from the get-go. Oaks starter Wes Roemer (2-1) had a rough start to his night. He started off the bottom of the first by hitting Archie Gilbert in the hand. Josh Horton followed with an RBI double to left to make it 1-0. Sean Doolittle followed that with his eighth home run of the season--a two-run shot to left that gave Stockton a 3-0 lead.

The Ports tacked on another run in the fourth, and got three more in the fifth on a two-run single from Cal-League Offensive Player of the Week Jed Morris and an RBI knock from Darryl Lawhorn to make it 7-0. Those were the final three runs given up by Roemer, who was charged with his first loss of the season after going five innings, allowing seven runs on nine hits while striking out five.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Ports offense had its best showing of the night. With Oaks reliever Leyson Septimo on the hill, and a run already home, the Ports loaded the bases with two outs. Having already knocked in two runs the inning before, Morris stepped up and delivered a bases-clearing double to left to give the Ports an 11-0 lead. Morris came home when Lawhorn followed with his third RBI on the night with a bloop double to left to make it 12-0. All five runs the scored in the sixth were charged to Septimo. Morris went 3-for-4 in the game with 5 RBI.

With the bottom of the sixth running so long, the Ports did not send Harden out for the seventh even though he hadn’t yet reached his pitch count. Jared Lansford (SV, 1) came on in the seventh and retired the first eight batters he faced, and nine of 10 batters total to earn the three-inning save.

The Ports added two more runs in the eighth when Jermaine Mitchell hit his second home run of the season--a two-run shot onto the Jackson Rancheria Back Porch off Oaks reliever Scott Mayne.

Stockton and Visalia will play Game 2 of their three game series on Wednesday morning at Banner Island Ballpark during Baseball Is Education Day. The first pitch is set for 10:35 a.m. PST, and local school children will be in attendance to learn about the educational aspects of baseball. They’ll witness a battle of left-handers, as James Heuser (2-0, 6.00 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Ports, opposed by Eddie Romero (1-4, 4.22 ERA) for the Oaks.