Sept. 3, 2011 11:50 PM
The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com

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With another week gone by, it’s time once again for the San Francisco Giants Minor League affiliates weekly review. The Fresno Grizzlies and San Jose Giants have sent a lot of their talent to the big leagues over the last week, but they are still going strong along with the Richmond Flying Squirrels and the Augusta Greenjackets. Let’s take a look at how each team fared, with one setting historic team records in their division…

Fresno Grizzlies (AAA): Fresno was definitely hit the hardest by the Giants call-ups, and they managed to go only 2-6 last week including a 8-6 loss to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox on Monday. The Grizz currently are 22-30 on the season, now sitting 11 games back of the Sacramento Rivercats in the Pacific Coast League South. Brett Pill still managed to have a nice week, including a 2-4 game on Sunday where he launched a homer and racked up three RBI. Pill is batting .304 for the season with 40 RBI so far. Next up for Fresno will be four more against the Sky Sox than another four game set at home against the Las Vegas 51′s. 

Richmond Flying Squirrels (AA): Skipper Dave Machemer and his Squirrels have had an up and down season so far, and their 4-4 record last week including a 3-2 loss to the Akron Aeros on Monday goes to show it. They currently sit 5 games back in the Eastern League West at 24-26, though that division is very tight so far. Pitcher Eric Surkamp has been very effective in the 10 games he’s started so far this year, posting a 3-2 record with a 1.33 ERA in those games. Surkamp pitched very well on Sunday, going for eight full innings allowing eight hits, but no earned runs, one walk, and three strikeouts. Next up for Richmond will by a three game set in Bowie to face the Bay Sox, then three at home against the Reading R-Phils. 

San Jose Giants (A): By far the most successful club in the Giants minor league system thus far, these Giants are currently riding a franchise record 11 straight games, including a 5-3 win over the Stockton Ports on Monday. Their winning streak has pushed their lead in the California League North to nine games ahead of Stockton, and will have 4 more game against them coming up this week. Gary Brown has still by swinging the lumber in San Jose, sporting a eye popping .374 with 39 RBI and 30 stolen bags. He went 3-4 on Sunday against the Ports with two runs, an RBI, and two stolen bases. As for on the mound, Zach Wheeler had a carrer high 12 strikeouts in his outing on Sunday as well, allowing only three hits, no runs, and one walk in his seven innings of work. 

Augusta Greenjackets (A): The Greenjackets are another team searching for consistency, going 3-4 last week including a 10-3 victory over the Rome Braves on Monday. At 21-30 on the season, Augusta currently sits 6.5 GB in the Southern Atlantic League South in second to last place. Second baseman Carlos Willougby has been a nice story for them thus far, including a 4-5 night on Monday with three runs, two RBI, and two stolen bags. Willougby currently is rocking a .284 average with 15 RBI and 30 stolen bases for the year. The Greenjackets have one more with the Braves in Rome, then four in Asheville to face Tourists, then three at home against the Charleston Riverdogs. 

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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villariagosa listens as Police Chief Charlie Beck, center, announces the arrest of a suspect in the March 31 beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow at an Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium, during a news conference, Sunday, May 22, 2011, at the stadium in Los Angeles. The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, was among several people detained for questioning after police served search warrants. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) (Reed Saxon)

The Los Angeles Police Department released these drawings during a news conference Sunday, May 22, 2011, of two suspects in the beating of San Francisco Giants fan Brian Stow in the Dodgers parking lot March 31, 2011. Police did not release the names of the individuals as the investigation is continuing. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department) (Anonymous)

A suspect in the beating of a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium on opening day remained behind bars today, as police continued hunting for a second suspect and the woman getaway driver following a news media leak.

Giovanni Ramirez, 31, of Los Angeles, was arrested at about 7:10 a.m. Sunday in the 800 block of North Mariposa Avenue in the east Hollywood area. He was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon — the foot he used to kick his victim — and held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Investigators were preparing additional lineups with multiple witnesses to Stow’s attack, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

On Monday, some media outlets published a mug shot of Ramirez from a file kept by parole agents, but the leak outraged police officials who thought the photo would compromise the investigation if witnesses saw the picture before the lineup. Lineups ask witnesses to identify or recognize a suspect in person and generally produce stronger evidence compared with a witness choosing a suspect from a series of photographs.

Officials contacted news outlets to ask for the removal of the mug shot and requested that no one post the image until the lineups were conducted, The Times reported.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said Ramirez is believed to have been the primary aggressor in the severe beating of 42-year-old Santa Clara paramedic Bryan Stow in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium on March 31. An arraignment

date for Ramirez has not been announced.

Two other suspects — a man sought for his involvement in the assault and a female thought to have been the getaway driver — remain at large, police said.

“We never gave up hope that this day would come; that the beginning of justice being served would happen,” Stow’s sister, Erin Collins, said Monday outside the San Francisco hospital where her brother remains hospitalized. “We look forward to the day when the other suspects are apprehended

FILE – This May 16, 2011 file photo shows San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow being transported to San Francisco General Hospital from Los Angeles, where he’s been in critical condition at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. Los Angeles police said Sunday, May 22, 2011, that one person has been arrested and several others detained for questioning after search warrants in the beating were served. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File) (Damian Dovarganes)

as well.

“Bryan has a long road ahead of him, but we are thankful that this suspect is in custody, and is unable to do this to another family,” Collins, who was wearing an LAPD baseball cap, said.

Police notified the family of Ramirez’s arrest about 45 minutes after he was taken into custody, Collins said.

Beck said Sunday the tip that resulted in Sunday morning’s raid had been provided by a parole officer — one of more than 630 leads pursued by more than 20 LAPD detectives who, to date, have worked on the case for more than 6,000 hours, 1,000 of them overtime hours.

Prosecutors were reviewing the case, according to the District Attorney’s Office, which noted that Ramirez has two prior felony convictions and remains jailed on a parole hold.

“Because the Los Angeles Police Department continues to investigate the March 31 beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow, we have no further comment,” according to a District Attorney’s Office statement.

Ramirez had met with his parole agent for a mandatory check-in meeting shortly after the attack, and the agent noticed that he resembled one of two assailants pictured in police sketches of the suspects, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to The Times, the agent told police — it was unclear exactly when — and Ramirez was summoned back to the office for another meeting last week. That’s when the agent noticed that Ramirez had recently added several tattoos, which covered part of his neck. Authorities believe he was trying to cover up an older tattoo, in case a witness had seen the tattoo and described it to police.

After the meeting, witnesses to the beating picked Ramirez from a selection of photos shown to them by detectives, and a surveillance team followed him around the clock from Friday until Sunday morning, when he was taken into custody.

Stow was flown to San Francisco General Hospital last week after more than a month of treatment at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. His sister said Sunday he has stopped having seizures but has not regained consciousness, even though he is no longer in a coma.

He is still listed in critical condition.

Last week, Beck said the Dodgers donated an additional $100,000 to increase the reward in the case to $250,000. The Dodgers announced last month they had donated $25,000 to the reward fund.

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Giants manager Bruce Bochy has shown a remarkable ability to plug the right player into a situation, and now, he has more pieces with which to play.

The latest is Darren Ford, who is as fast as anybody I’ve seen on a baseball diamond. He may never hit enough to be a regular, but he has been a base-running dynamo. He scored the winning run in Sunday’s 11-inning win over the A’s despite a perfect throw from A’s right fielder Ryan Sweeney.

Nate Schierholtz is another. Schierholtz first came up to the Giants in 2007, but shuttled back and forth between Fresno and San Francisco for three years before winning a spot on the Giants’ roster last year.

Even then, it wasn’t as a starter and he still gets only occasional starts, but he’s made the most of his limited playing time. He saved a game against the Dodgers with a great catch of a sinking liner by Jamey Carroll that seemed destined to tie or even win the game. On Sunday, he hit a home run over the right-field wall to tie the game in the eighth inning and set the stage for Ford’s heroics.

Schierholtz is fast making a case that he should be in the lineup full-time; with Andres Torres in center and Cody Ross in left, the Giants have a terrific defensive outfield. That leaves Pat Burrell the odd man out — Burrell started Sunday’s game, but he has mostly been used as a pinch-hitter lately — but for a team that depends as much on pitching as the Giants do, defense has to be paramount.

Sunday’s win was the seventh walk-off win for the Giants this season, which is probably the result of the added confidence gained by winning the World Series last year.

It’s still going to be up to Bochy to keep making the right decisions. He’ll get another important piece back soon; Pablo Sandoval is apparently about two weeks away from returning.

Sandoval was playing well in the field and hitting well, from the left side at least, before he was injured. The Giants really had no backup plan for him. Bochy moved Miguel Tejada to third base, but though Tejada makes an occasional brilliant play, such as his leaping catch Sunday of Conor Jackson’s searing line drive that seemed headed for the left-field corner, he doesn’t move well to either his left or right. It was significant that Bochy installed Mike Fontenot at shortstop and moved Tejada to third. Fontenot was obtained last year as insurance if second baseman Freddy Sanchez were injured. He is not a shortstop.

Sandoval’s return will solidify third base, but shortstop remains a problem. Bochy may have to use Emmanuel Burriss, who may never be a major league hitter but is superior defensively to either Tejada or Fontenot, who are not hitting well, anyway. Mark DeRosa, who was looked on as infield insurance, can’t stay healthy. His playing career is about to end.

But with Madison Bumgarner finally winning his first game of 2011 last week and Ryan Vogelsong continuing to throw well, the Giants’ pitching remains very strong. So long as Bochy keeps pushing the right button.

Glenn Dickey has been covering Bay Area sports since 1963 and also writes on www.GlennDickey.com. Email him at glenndickey@hotmail.com.

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