Behind the red-hot bat of J.T. Realmuto, the Miami Marlins avoided a series sweep at the hands of the Giants, squeaking out a 5-4 win in a Sunday showdown in the Bay.
Matt Cain had the makings of a great start through the first two innings as he had his swing-and-miss stuff early on in the game, getting sharp movement on breaking pitches and both his two-seam and four-seam fastball. He got Christian Yelich to whiff twice, once on a slider that started at the knees and dipped into the dirt in the first, and another on a changeup in the third. Cain also struck out Justin Bohr on his signature high fastball in the first. Of his four strikeouts, all of them came swinging.
The second time through the lineup, Miami started to figure out Cain. The beef of the Marlins' lineup knocked the right-hander around, as Dee Gordon, Marcel Ozuna, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a combined 6 for 7 against Cain, including a Stanton's 4th career home run against the veteran. Yelich, although hitless against Cain, had two RBIs via two fielder's choices. J.T. Realmuto also gave Cain trouble on the mound, racking up three hits, although one was due to Angel Pagan losing a ball in the sun.
The dreaded fifth inning that has bothered Cain so much in the young season didn't give him too much trouble, but it was clear that by the time it rolled around, he no longer had the same sharpness as the first inning. His opposition, Adam Conley, summed up the negativity of that dreaded fifth inning by taking him to ten pitches before grounding out. That one at-bat took a lot out of the right-hander, which made it easier for the Marlins to ding him for a run in that inning.
Cain ended the day by allowing ten hits and four runs in his 5.2 innings of work, but looking solely at the stat line would not be an accurate representation of how well Cain pitched. A pitch here and a lucky break there and Cain is ending the day only on a high note.
Although the bats cooled down just a bit after scoring eight and seven runs the previous two nights, the bats continued to stay hot and ensured that Cain wouldn't pick up the loss, matching the four runs that Cain allowed. After roping two triples last night, Gregor Blanco continued to stay hot, racking up two hits to make it two multi-hit days in a row. Pagan and Panik added in multi-hit games of their own, and Hunter Pence slugged a 458-foot moonshot to dead center to give him his third home run of the season.
San Francisco had all the momentum going for them after tying up the game in the bottom of the seventh but failed to capitalize on opportunities. After Josh Osich had given up a go-ahead home run to the red-hot Realmuto in the top of the eight, the Giants loaded up the bases with no outs, but they couldn't get the hit when it counted. Angel Pagan, the team's best hitter with runners in scoring position, grounded into a 1-2-3 double play and Panik grounded out, squandering that opportunity and allowing Marlins escaped the inning without losing the lead. The Giants maintained the one-run deficit in the top of the ninth, but couldn't generate a run in the bottom of the inning and lost a heartbreaker.
The San Diego Padres will be coming to town on Monday to face off against Madison Bumgarner and the newly revived Giants. This series will be the first time this season that the Giants and the Padres face off against one another.
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