Congratulations to Claremont High product Justin Germano, who threw a perfect game while pitching for the Cleveland Indians’ Triple-A Colombus affiliate on Tuesday night. Germano and Columbus beat Syracuse (the Washington Nationals’ affiliate) 3-0 in a game at Syracuse.

Germano, who has 79 career appearances (including 36 starts) in the big leagues, had been demoted to Triple-A after compiling a 5.68 ERA in nine relief appearances for the Indians.

Tuesday was his 15th appearance and fifth start since joining Columbus. The 28-year-old threw 65 of his 95 pitches for strikes and he struck out seven, including the final batter.

It was just the fifth perfect game in the history of the International League and first for the Columbus franchise.

Here’s a link to the minorleaguebaseball.com article with quotes from Germano

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110726&content_id=22339688&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_milb

Yes, Saturday’s Quakes 12-9 victory over the 66ers before 3,785 at the Epicenter was just one game, but the game seemed to be an indication of other trends for the team.

First, the recap.

The Quakes took a 10-2 lead in the fourth inning, thanks to two-run homers by Austin Gallagher (11th), Preston Mattingly (second) and Angelo Songco (19th). Gallagher and Mattingly are ex-Sixers and they hit the homers against starter Ryan Chaffee (2-10), an ex-Quake.

The Sixers rallied and Casey Haerther hit a pinch-hit three-run homer (his eighth) in the seventh inning to make it 10-8. After Michael Wing hit two early homers and Matt Long one, it was the fourth homer of the game. It was the first time this season the Quakes allowed four homers. They were the last team in the league who hadn’t allowed at least four homers in a game.

The Quakes added two runs in the seventh to make it 12-8, but the Sixers weren’t done.

Eric Oliver’s RBI double in the ninth made it 12-9 and after a single by Haerther, Quakes manager Juan Bustabad summoned closer Logan Bawcom.

Bawcom walked David Harris to put the tying run on base, but Jose Jimenez hit into a 1-2-3 double play to end the game as Bawcom earned his third save.

Some things we learned:

1–The Quakes (56-43 overall, 18-11 second half) aren’t playing like a team that already won the first half. They keep winning and winning.

2–The Sixers (45-54, 13-16) aren’t the same team that lost the first nine games of the second half. They’ve won or split their last six series this season (5-0-1).

3–While the pitching matchup involved probably the two worst starters for each team, both bullpens have been suspect of late. Both teams have plenty of untested arms that will make for an interesting closing stretch to the regular season.

In a game about as crazy — but not as scripted — as the postgame lucha libre Mexican wrestling show at Arrowhead Credit Union Park, the Sixers rallied from two four-run deficits to down Lake Elsinore 11-9 on Friday night.

Sixers starting pitcher Kyle Hurst was knocked out of the game after three batters in the first inning when he apparently felt something in his shoulder and had to come out.

The Sixers trailed 5-1 in the third inning and 7-3 in the fifth but rallied.

RBI singles by Kole Calhoun and Eric Oliver in the sixth tied the score 7-7.

Lake Elsinore took a 9-7 lead in the eighth on a two-run single by Reymond Fuentes, his fourth hit of the game.

The Sixers rallied in the bottom half, with help from Lake Elsinore defense. Matt Long’s fairly routine fly ball to left was played into a triple when left fielder Wande Olabisi and  Fuentes miscommunicated. Michael Wing’s third hit of the game, an RBI single put the Sixers within 9-8. After a fly out, Jason Ray came into pitch and got a potential inning-ending double play grounder to third but third baseman Jacob Blackwood couldn’t handle it for an error. Dillon Baird’s RBI single to right tied it and Carlos Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly that gave the Sixers a 10-9 lead. David Harris drove in his first run as a Sixer with a double off the wall in right.

Mike Kenney (3-3), who was charged with the second of two runs in the top of the eighth got the win. He stayed in for the ninth and after Danny Payne singled for his fourth hit of the game to start the inning, Kenney retired the next three batters to preserve the win.

The Sixers used five relievers in the game and only one, Eric Cendejas (who faced only three batters) wasn’t charged with a run. But understandably, the bullpen as a whole got the game ball.

Jose Jimenez’s two-run single with two outs in the top of the 12th inning snapped a 7-7 tie and the 66ers downed Modesto 9-7 at John Thurman Field on Thursday night.

It was the first road extra-inning win of the season for the Sixers (40-51 overall, 8-13 second half).

Jimenez, the 66ers catcher, then provided the decisive defensive play as he threw out Carlos Martinez trying to steal on a game-ending strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.

The Sixers had taken a 7-3 lead in the top of the eighth, but the Nuts answered with four in the bottom half to tie it up.

Eric Oliver was 3 for 6 with two runs and an RBI, Matt Long homered and scored four runs and Kole Calhoun walked three times and scored three times. The Sixers won despite being out-hit 14-9.

Reigning league Pitcher Of the Week Ariel Pena allowed three runs while striking out eight in 5 2/3 innings. Although Kevin Nabors allowed the four runs in the eighth, the Sixers’ other three relievers were very solid: Caleb Graham, Kevin Johnson and Buddy Boshers (1-4) combined for six shutout innings.