Marlins hand Giants 7-5 loss
Kyle Stowers hit a three-run homer, and the Miami Marlins beat the San Francisco Giants 7-5 on Sunday for their first series win in more than a month.
Nick Fortes had three hits and scored two runs for Miami, which won for the third time in four games.
"Everything had to go well, honestly, to beat a team like that in this environment," Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said. "To take two out of three with the three pitchers that they ran out against us, really happy with what our group did."
San Francisco lost for the fourth time in five games, hurting its sagging chances in the race for the third NL wild card. Miami's previous series win was at Milwaukee in late July.
"This is probably as bad a loss as we've had," Giants manager Bob Melvin said.
Giants ace Logan Webb (11-9) permitted six runs and eight hits in six innings. He struck out four and walked none.
Webb was working on a shutout before he got into trouble with two out in the fifth. Fortes hit an RBI single ahead of Stowers' third homer — a 439-foot drive to right-center that extended his hitting streak to seven games and lifted the Marlins a 4-2 lead.
Both Melvin and Webb lamented a bad throw by Webb to second base on a comebacker by José Devers that kept the Giants from turning an inning-ending double play in the fifth.
"It's just a bad play and that leads to runs," Webb said. "I lost that game today. That was on me today. It just sucks. We scored five runs. We scored early and I feel like I was in a good spot. I had good stuff."
Webb had a 1.70 ERA over his last six outings coming into the day.
"He'll be the first to admit he's got to turn that double play," Melvin said. "He had good stuff — really good stuff. It just had all the makings of something we haven't been able to do. And then it just turned on us."
Stowers, who played collegiately at Stanford and had family in attendance, hit leadoff for the first time. He took two changeups outside before Webb threw him another one that leaked into the strike zone.
"He has such good action on his sinker and such good action on his changeup that you've just got to get him a little elevated," Stowers said. "Because if you play that game below the zone, it's tough. I was just able to get him a little bit higher than pitches in prior at-bats."
San Francisco put together a three-run rally in the bottom half, highlighted by Mark Canha's tying RBI single. But Miami responded with two more runs in the sixth.
Jonah Bride doubled home Jesús Sánchez, and Otto Lopez's run-scoring groundout gave the Marlins a 6-5 lead.
Xzavion Curry (1-2), who made his MLB debut Saturday night, pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings for his first career win. Calvin Faucher handled the ninth for his sixth save of the season.
San Francisco's Mike Yastrzemski, the grandson of Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski, hit a leadoff drive in the first for his 100th career homer. The Yastrzemskis are the fourth grandson-grandfather duo to both have at least 100 home runs in their MLB careers.
Marlins starter Darren McCaughan, who made his first start of the season and second career start, gave up three earned runs in four innings.
