Quakes come up short in game 5, 7-6 in 10 innings

In the end, the San Jose Giants didn’t necessarily have more late-inning magic, they just had the last late-inning magic.

Two days after the Quakes rallied from a 7-4 deficit in the ninth, but San Jose won a thrilling game 3 12-7 in 11 innings, something similar happened.

This time, the Quakes rallied from down 6-4 in the eighth, but squandered a bases-loaded, one-out situation in that inning. They also left a runner in scoring position in both the 9th and 10th innings.

The Quakes seemed like a team of destiny in 2010. All the way up until the time Darwin Perez struck out to end the game, they seemed like it. Give a lot of credit to the coaching staff of Keith Johnson, Damon Mashore and Dan Ricabal that kept the team on track and focused on winning a title.

They were balanced, with speed, defense and pitching. They just didn’t have one more run.

Is the focus for organizations to win league titles? No, developing players is more important. But they’d like to develop players in a winning environment. Win or lose, the Angels got that with the Quakes players, who had a winning, team-first attitude.