Holliday grand slam powers Fresno past Stockton in 9-8 thriller

Ethan Holliday gave Fresno the cushion it needed, then Stockton spent the rest of the night trying to rip it away. The Grizzlies held on for a 9-8 win over the Ports at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, California, surviving a game that looked settled after Holliday’s second-inning grand slam and became a late test of nerves.

Fresno built the lead the hard way at first. Clayton Gray and Roldy Brito helped start the opening inning, and the Grizzlies used sacrifice flies from Holliday and Tanner Thach to grab a 2-0 lead. In the second, Jeremy Ciriaco and Kyle Fossum reached to set the table for Holliday, who turned on a pitch and drove a grand slam down the left-field foul pole for the first of his professional career. The blast, his third homer of the season, made it 6-0 and matched the kind of impact expected from the Rockies’ No. 1 prospect, who entered the season as the No. 4 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft out of Stillwater High School in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Stockton did not fold. The Ports answered with a solo homer and then a three-run rally in the third that pushed Fresno into the bullpen earlier than planned. Manuel Olivares was important in that stretch, stranding inherited runners and keeping the damage from growing. Fresno later added breathing room with sharper baserunning and plate discipline, including Cameron Nelson stealing both second and third before scoring on a sac fly, then a bases-loaded walk that moved the Grizzlies ahead 8-3.

Even that was not enough to end the stress. Stockton scored three times in the sixth and twice more in the seventh, then tied the game 8-8 on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly. Fresno answered immediately in the eighth when Roldy Brito reached on a bunt single, advanced on an errant throw and scored on Tanner Thach’s go-ahead RBI single to center. Zach Harris earned the win after working through traffic, and Seth Clausen finished the last two innings with a perfect six-out save.

The game took 2 hours, 58 minutes and drew 1,286 on a clear 76-degree night with a 9 mph wind blowing out to center field. Fresno improved to 14-9 after opening the series with a 10-0 shutout on April 28, while Stockton fell to 10-13, and the Grizzlies left town with back-to-back wins that showed both their ceiling and their risk.