Recap: Giants Hold Off Marlins, Win 6-4

Aug 17, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; San Francisco Giants center fielder Gregor Blanco (7) connects for an two run RBI triple during the fourth inning against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
It wasn’t quite as exciting as Friday night’s game, but the Giants did beat the Marlins 6-4 down in Miami this evening. Matt Cain (8-8, 4.35 ERA) got the win and Sergio Romo colleted his 30th save on the season. It’s the first time in Romo’s career that he has hit that mark. The only down for the Giants on this day was Brandon Belt‘s hitting streak coming to an end after 11 games.

This game had all the makings of a low scoring affair early on as both Cain and Marlins pithcer Henderson Alvarez (2-2, 3.41 ERA) dominated the early innings. The teams were scoreless through 3 innings when the Giants came to bat in the top of the 4th inning.

Belt worked a one out walk, after taking a very close 2-2 pitch, and Posey followed him with a hard single in to CF. Hunter Pence struck out, but strike three was wild and the runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd. Pablo Sandoval came up with 2 men on and 2 out.

Sandoval hit the ball hard to first baseman Logan Morrison who fielded it, but he could not get back to the bag in time to beat a diving Pablo. Collectively we all held our breath as the Panda rolled on the ground in obvious pain after driving in the run. He got himself up, dusted himself off, and stayed in the game. It takes more than a cleat to stop a Panda.

With Posey on 3rd and Pablo on first Alvarez balked on a pickoff attempt towards first base. Posey scored and the Giants had a 2-0 lead. Roger Kieschnick then earned his second walk in as many plate appearances to set up Gregor Blanco. He hit a ball past the diving Jake Marisnick in CF and took off runnning. Both runners scored to make it 4-0 Giants, but Tim Flannery held Blanco at 3rd for the triple.

Matt Cain hit a bump in the bottom half of the 4th, but managed to keep the Marlis scoreless after loading the bases with 2 walks. In the 6th he wasn’t so lucky. After a leadoff base hit by Donovan Solano, Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate for Miami. On a 2-2 pitch that was up and in to Stanton, it looked to everybody that Giancarlo had chased the pitch. But neither of the umpires agreed. The very next pitch Stanton hit a 446 foot home run in to the Budweiser bar in deep left field.

The Giants twitter account was obviously as flustered as Matt Cain. But we understand, Stanton did used to go by Mike.

The Giants added 2 runs in the top of the 8th inning, and only needed one hit to do it. A.J. Ramos walked the bases full of Giants with 1 out in the inning. Mike Dunn replaced him and proceeded to walk Sandoval to force in a run. Andres Torres followed that with an infield single, and the Giants had some insurance.

Matt Cain had his 5th straight quality start and lowered his ERA to 4.35.

The Marlins scored 2 of their own in the bottom half of the 8th. Santiago Casilla replaced Cain and walked the leadoff hitter. After a Brandon Crawford error on a botched force attempt, Casilla got the big hitting Stanton to strikeout. Logan Morrison then turned on a 1-1 pitch and hit a double down the line to score the 2 runs. The Marlins cut it to 6-4. Casilla escaped further damage.

Sergio Romo pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his 30th save in 2013. That’s the 16th season by a Giants pitcher with 30 or more saves.

Tomorrow it’s baseball and brunch as the Giants look to finish off the sweep of the Marlins. It’s Madison Bumgarner (11-7, 2.73 ERA) against Tom Koehler (3-8, 4.62 ERA) starting at 10:10am PT. Enjoy that morning coffee.