Tanner Goes the Distance in Complete Game Victory
Righty Throws the Club's First Complete Game
By Nevada Cullen
MARYSVILLE, Calif. -- As the night wore on, I kept checking Gabe Tanner's pitch count. He needed just three pitches to get to the first two outs of the game, and three more to complete a six-pitch first inning.
Tanner, a right-handed pitcher, entered Wednesday's contest against the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers tied for third in the Pioneer League among starting pitchers with a 3.58 ERA. The Danville native only allowed one base hit through the opening three frames, a Cooper Hext two-out single in the second.
Yuba-Sutter finally got the leadoff man aboard with a walk to start the fourth, but Tanner rolled up a 6-4-3 double play to speed through the rest of the inning. Thirty-four pitches through four innings.
Gio Brusa nearly homered to begin the fifth, blasting a triple off of the wall and scoring on a groundout. Tanner caught Connor Denning looking at an outside pitch to finish the frame with his first strikeout. Forty-three pitches through five innings.
In the next inning, Tanner fielded back-to-back comebackers and tossed them to first to get the second and third out of the frame. Fifty-three pitches through six innings.
The High Wheelers picked up a couple of two-out knocks in the seventh, but Tanner shrugged it off and forced Denning to fly out to left. Sixty-seven pitches through seven innings.
Bobby Lada smashed a two-run homer to left in the eighth, his fifth in his last three games. Oh well. Eighty pitches through eight innings.
Tanner fanned Gio Brusa on a devastating, 85 mph changeup to start the ninth. Now, this was where Noah Millikan exited in Marysville, after 8.1 dazzling innings against the High Wheelers on July 30.
But, Aaron Miles gave Tanner the opportunity to keep going. Next, Tanner punched out Hext on a 91 mph fastball at the top of the zone for his fourth and final K.
Lastly, Tanner got Mike Campagna to ground out to second to end it. Ninety-three pitches. Nine innings. A complete game victory. The first one in the history of the Oakland Ballers.
Oakland beat Yuba-Sutter, 14-3, behind Tanner's brilliance and three crooked innings. The Ballers put up five in the first, four in the sixth and five more in the ninth.
On the second pitch of the game, Tremayne Cobb Jr. clubbed a leadoff bomb to straightaway center field. It's the second time in the last five days Cobb has led off the contest with a round tripper.
Christian Almanza provided run-scoring hits in both the first and the sixth. Almanza collected three hits and three RBI on the night, pushing his franchise-record tally to 97 runs batted in.
Oakland's five-run ninth featured RBI knocks from Darryl Buggs II, Davis Drewek and Nick Leehey. Cobb also added his fourth hit of the game in the frame.
T.J. McKenzie made his Oakland debut Wednesday after being acquired via trade from the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. He extended his hit streak to eight games with a ninth-inning single, his first knock as a Baller.
First pitch for game three against the High Wheelers is slated for 7:05 p.m. PDT Thursday. As always, you can listen to the action on 860 AM The Answer and on the Oakland Ballers YouTube channel.
