Offense Sputters as Stanton, Koehler Power Through Giants

On May 15th, with a win over the Arizona Diamondbacks completing a four-game series sweep, the San Francisco Giants took sole possession of first place in the National League West over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

With repeated success over the next month and a half, San Francisco's lead grew and multiplied, and the team concluded its hot first half of baseball with a 6.5 game lead over the rival Dodgers and the title of the best record in baseball.

How times have changed for the orange and black, as what once seemed to be an insurmountable lead with the way the Giants had been playing now is in jeopardy of slipping through their fingertips.

Not even Bruce Bochy's presence back in the dugout a day removed from spending the night at the University of Miami Hospital could give the Giants the energy they needed to take on the Miami Marlins.

San Francisco's bats, maybe a little sleep deprived from last night's 14 inning marathon, were sound asleep against Tom Koehler and company, only scraping together three singles on route putting up zero after zero on the scoreboard, the number which now indicates the Giants' lead in the standings.

Ángel Pagán had two of those three singles and drew a walk at the plate as well, but highlight tapes around the country will think of the left fielder as the person who couldn't catch up to a pure muscle broken-bat double off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton.

Barry Bonds's protégé dinged the newly acquired Matt Moore for one of his two earned runs on the day, the second coming by way of a Marcel Ozuna groundout that drove in Martin Prado from third.

Just like the Marlins, there were a couple of instances in which San Francisco threatened to put a run or two on the board, but those opportunities didn't materialize into runs.

The Giants bat 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position and Brandon Crawford was the victim of two of those outs only a day after his historic seven-hit game, one of which drove in the winning run.

Unlike Rennie Stennett, the last player to go for seven base knocks in a single ballgame, Crawford couldn't follow up his historic performance with a three-hit game, or even one hit for that matter.

While Crawford's encore performance wasn't a hit, Moore's second start gave the Giants a glimmer of hope, even though it came with some hiccups along the way.

Similar to the lefty's last start against the Philadelphia Phillies, there were a lot of walks to go around, five to be exact.

Giving out free gifts of 90 feet wasn't in the plan for Moore, but similar to his last start, Moore found a way to work around his control issues and put together a solid start, one that certainly gave San Francisco a fighting chance of winning the ballgame.

Even with the five walks, Moore kept Miami's bats at bay, only allowing three hits, Stanton's the only of the extra-base-hit variety, and striking out seven along the way with a healthy heater and looping knuckle curveball.

Miami's two-run first inning did not deter Moore from doing his job, as the lefty settled down and put up zeroes from the second inning on until being pulled from the ballgame following the sixth inning.

Moore's best inning was his last, putting together a 1-2-3 inning and striking out the final batter he faced to cap off a good day on the mound.

But just like Madison Bumgarner found out in his last start against the Washington Nationals, when the bats are off, anything short of perfect is a recipe for disaster.

From the get-go, the Giants had an opportunity to put a run on the scoreboard when Pagán and Brandon Belt drew a walking pair of one-out walks in the top of the first, but Koehler struck out Crawford and induced a Conor Gillaspie ground out, ending the threat.

The opportunities to plate a runner were few and far between, as San Francisco's next chance to bring home a runner in scoring position, came in the eighth inning,

Crawford once again came to the plate with Pagán and Belt on first and second and the end result stayed the say as the shortstop flied out to left.

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Moore's final stat line was almost an exact carbon copy of his first start with the Giants against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Against the Phillies, Moore went six innings, gave up three hits, surrendered two runs and unearned runs, walked six batters, and struck out seven.

Against the Marlins, the numbers in all of the categories listed above were the same, except in this start Moore only allowed five walks, not six.

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