Stanton, Marlins Continue Homestand Against Struggling Giants
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Consistency has been hard to come by for the Miami Marlins this season but their biggest star has been setting quite the example of late.
Giancarlo Stanton homered for the fourth straight game on Sunday while helping the Marlins sweep the visiting Colorado Rockies to climb within four games of .500.
Miami continues its homestand this week against the disappointing, last place San Francisco Giants.
While sweeps have been hard to come by for the Marlins (they have just three this season), Miami did take three straight from the Giants while visiting San Francisco last month.
It certainly helps the Marlins cause that Stanton is on the kind of streak rarely seen around baseball, even for the games best players.
Back on July 4th the Marlins completed their 82nd game and Stanton had 21 home runs on the season.
In the 34 games since then, Stanton has doubled his homer total and now leads the majors with 42.
It's been an amazing place for the slugger to sustain, even more so considering that he's altered his batting stance and never skipped a beat. He moved his left leg closer to home plate, closing his stance a bit more.
The Marlins will need Stanton to continue mashing baseballs on a regular basis if they are going to make a final push towards a playoff spot.
A Wild Card spot seems the only realistic goal the Marlins can obtain, and even that will be a stretch.
Miami trails Arizona, who holds the second Wild Card spot, by 8 ½ games.
The other path to the playoffs is winning the division, but the Nationals are a whopping 14 games ahead of the second place Marlins.
GAME INFO: First pitch 7:10 PM, Marlins Park
PITCHING MATCHUP: Giants LHP Ty Blach (8-7, 4.15 ERA) vs. Marlins LHP Adam Conley (4-5, 5.43)
Blach has been able to eat up a lot of innings for the Giants of late, logging at least seven frames in each of his last five starts.
He has won two straight outings, both a home, while giving up just two runs in each of the victories.
Pitching away from San Francisco has been a bit of a struggle for Blach. He has a 5.06 ERA in 48 road innings pitched while allowing six home runs.
Conley has lost two straight starts, both on the road to divisional opponents. Prior to that, he had tossed three consecutive quality starts after being recalled from Triple-A New Orleans.
He was roughed up last week against the Nationals, giving up a season-high 11 hits and 5 runs.
Conley has only faced the Giants once, earning a no-decision while surrendering four runs in 5 2/3 innings last April.
ROUNDING THE BASES
- Stanton's latest home run was a significant one for a couple of reasons. It tied a Marlins single-season record for home runs (42) with Gary Sheffield, who set the mark all the way back in 1996. It was the 250th dinger of Stanton's young career.
- Additionally, Stanton set a Marlins single-season record with 19 go-ahead home runs, which also leads the majors.
- San Francisco is 3-8 on the road since the All-Star Break. They hold a bleak 20-40 record away from home on the season.
- All-Star catcher Buster Posey is hitting .262 with two home runs in 41 career games against Miami.
