Giavotella stays hot; Omaha wins 4th straight

Giavotella continues to swing a hot stick, belting
a home run and driving in three
(Photo: Minda Haas / Royal Blues)

The calendar may have changed from June to July, but Omaha second baseman Johnny Giavotella hasn’t missed a beat at the plate. Following a calendar month in which he hit .398 with 49 hits, 25 runs batted in and 20 runs scored, the 5-foot-8 Giavotella belted a home run and drove in three runs in a 4-1 Storm Chasers victory over Albuquerque Saturday night at Werner Park.

Righthander Sean O’Sullivan (1-1), making his third rehabilitation start for the Storm Chasers, held the Isotopes to a run on four hits over six solid innings. He walked two and struck out five, throwing 59 of his 88 pitches for strikes. After giving up four runs on six hits in his first two rehab innings on June 22nd, O’Sullivan has allowed a total of one run on five hits in 10 innings since. He allowed his lone run in the top of the second, spotting Albuquerque a 1-0 lead, but that was all the visitors would manage to muster.

In the bottom of the third inning, Joaquin Arias led off with a triple to the left-center gap off losing pitching Randy Keisler (4-4). After an Irving Falu groundout kept Arias at third base, Giavotella lined one over the left field wall to make it 2-1 Storm Chasers. The PCL All-Star would add a sacrifice fly in the fifth, giving him seven home runs and a team-leading 59 runs batted in this season, all while hitting .328.

Kila Ka’aihue tacked on an RBI single in the sixth to make it 4-1, plenty of support for the Storm Chasers’ bullpen. Everett Teaford held the Isotopes scoreless in the seventh and eighth, and Jeremy Jeffress retired the heart of the Albuquerque lineup in order in the ninth on three consecutive strikeouts to end the game. It was Jeffress second save of the season for Omaha.

The Chasers winning performance entertained a Werner Park-record crowd of 8,801 fans, a record that could be short-lived with a sell-out crowd expected for Sunday evening’s 22-minute “Fireworks Bonanza.” All fixed seats have been sold, with approximately 1,000 grass berm tickets still remaining.

Second place Memphis continues to win (they have won three straight), so the Storm Chasers lead remains 1.5 games. 

Veteran righthander Jeff Suppan (7-4, 4.88) will be in search of his fourth win in four starts and sixth win in a row overall Sunday, while John Ely (3-4, 5.94) will pitch for the visiting Isotopes. The Storm Chasers will be going for their fourth series sweep of the year, while Albuquerque will try to avoid their 11th-consecutive defeat and second sweep in a row.