Giambi Hits Grand Slam, Fuels Indians Over Yakima

Jeremy Giambi doesn’t mind when people ask him about him older brother.

“I’m his biggest fan and he’s my biggest fan,” Giambi said of big brother Jason, one of the Oakland Athletics’ hitting stars.

Still, Giambi would like to make his own mark in baseball. What he did Thursday at sizzling Seafirst Stadium will help his cause.

Giambi came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth inning. Yakima starter Mickey Maestas (0-5), trying to escape a major jam, offered a fastball that Giambi pulled foul, way out of the stadium to right field.

Maestas didn’t learn from the mistake. Giambi straightened out his swing on the next fastball and hit a grand slam to right-center to lead the Spokane Indians (16-21) to a 7-4 Northwest League win over the Yakima Bears (14-23).

“That’s the first (grand slam) I can remember,” the right-fielder said, including Little League days in the recounting.

Jeremy and Jason Giambi, separated by four years, have never played on the same team. They came close during Jeremy’s freshman year at Cal State Fullerton, but Jason left Fullerton as a junior to pursue his dreams of a professional career.

The brothers are close, but from different molds. Jason, at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, has 3 inches and 30 pounds on little brother.

“But I have better speed than him,” said Jeremy, fourth in the NWL with nine stolen bases.

The Giambis usually talk on the phone twice a week. The Oakland star is a good source for equipment and encouragement, Jeremy said.

Jeremy Giambi had missed Spokane’s two previous games because of a minor infraction.

“It was a motivational sitting,” said Indians manager Bob Herold. “It doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, if you lose your focus.”

“It was just a wake-up call,” Giambi said. “It made me realize I had … to still follow the rules.”

Thursday, Indians offensive help came from catcher Juan Robles, who went 3 for 3, scored twice and drove in a run, and second baseman Scott Harp, who drove in two runs with a sacrifice fly and single.

Starter Allen Sanders (5-0) pitched five solid innings to tie for the league lead in wins. Sanders faltered in the sixth, when Bobby Meyer’s long homer to left-center field led a four-run rally, but third pitcher Ryan Brewer pitched a perfect eighth and ninth for his first save.

“Sanders turned his own season around,” Herold said. “He forced my hand to put him back in the starting rotation.”

The middle game of the three-game series is set for 7:05 tonight. Spokane’s Jake Chapman (3-0, 5.66) is slated to make his first start of the season, in place of Steve Hueston, who’s taking a one-start rest. Blake Mayo (2-0), who has allowed one earned run in 29 innings, is scheduled to start for Yakima.

Notes

Tonight is the second of three 50-cent feast nights at Seafirst. All hot dogs, ice cream sandwiches and soft drinks will cost half a buck… . Spokane infielder Doug Blosser, on a rehabilitation assignment from Class A Lansing (Mich.) of the Midwest League, was sent home after a series of broken team rules. Herold expects Blosser to be assigned to the Gulf Coast rookie league… . Pitcher Kevin Carcamo, who arrived Wednesday from rookie league, made his Indians debut in relief of Sanders. He allowed Josh Glassey’s two-run single… . Indians shortstop Brett Taft, with flu-like symptoms, was a late scratch from the lineup….

Tribe second baseman Kenderick Moore, out since July 7 with a quadriceps pull in his left leg, apparently tweaked the injury Wednesday during infield practice. Moore said Tuesday that he hoped to return to the lineup during this homestand.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: INDIANS ON TV KXLY Xtra will televise tonight’s Northwest League baseball game between the Spokane Indians and Yakima Bears at Seafirst Stadium. Dennis Patchin will provide play-by-play for most of the game, with Indians director of public relations Todd Doolittle doing color commentary. Indians radio announcer Craig West will join the telecast in the third and fourth innings. The game may be seen on cable channel 14 in Spokane and cable channel 3 in North Idaho. Telecast for the 7:05 p.m game will start at 6:58.