
By: Joe Lami
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.–The Miami Marlins defeated the San Francisco Giants for the second night in a row on Saturday night by the final score of 5-0 to take the lead in the four game weekend set 2-1.
The night looked promising for the Giants, when Tim Lincecum smoked through the first inning with two strikeouts. However, it looked like a completely different Lincecum in the second inning, as he walked two to set up the Marlins first run of the inning. Lincecum walked both Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Marcell Ozuna to put runners on first and second, when Adeiny Hechavarria knocked in Saltalamacchia for the eventual game winning run with the Marlins first hit of the evening.
Controversy occurred in the bottom half of the second inning for the Giants, when Brandon Hicks came up to the plate. He lined a hard hit ball off of the bricks in right field for what should have been a double. However, when rounding first, Hicks apparently missed first base. After being challenged by the Marlins, it was deemed that Hicks missed first base, so he was called out. “I thought I hit it, but I was looking up for the ball so I don’t know,” explained Hicks.
Instead of having runners of first and third with only one out, the Giants had two outs when Brandon Crawford was the next one to step to the plate. He flied out to center on what would have been an easy sacrafice fly, but instead the fly out ended the inning.
“Crawford hit one and it would have been a run,” expressed Giants manager Bruce Bochy.
The Marlins were able to add two more in the sixth off of a tired Lincecum. Casey McGehee started the inning with a leadoff double, only to be batted in when Garrett Jones came up next with a triple. A scary moment occurred on the play, as Angel Pagan went diving for the ball, and ended up missing it, allowing Jones to get to third. He banged up his shoulder on the play. “He said he was a little sore, and will evaluate him tomorrow, but he should be okay,” Bochy commented. Saltalamacchia then hit in Jones with a sacrifice fly to left to extend the lead to 3-0.
Lincecum was coming off of his best start of the season against Atlanta where he struck out 11, while allowing one run on two hits. On Saturday night, the former Cy Young winner lasted six innings, giving up three runs on seven hits, while striking out six. “Timmy had a good outing, the way we have been swinging the bats of late, we could have expected more,” added Bochy.
Miami was able to add one in the seventh, when Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo shot for his 12th homerun of the season. The Marlins also added one in the ninth that went unearned to make it 5-0.
Marlins’ pitcher Tom Koehler bounces back from his worst performance of the season, where he only pitched 3.2 innings against the Dodgers, with the win. Koehler pitched seven, striking out seven, while only allowing four hits. He ups his record to 4-3 on the year.
The Giants try to get back in the win column Sunday, as they will face these same Marlins for the final matchup of the four-game weekend set. San Francisco will be putting Ryan Vogelsong on the mound, while they face Jacob Turner.