Pauley's booming homer wasn't enough. The Marlins' bullpen falters again, gifting the Giants a comeback victory and extending their road series win drought.
A road series win still eludes the Miami Marlins after a 6-3 loss against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.
The Marlins (13-15) managed to have more runs than hits during the game. Their entire scoring came on a three-run home run by Graham Pauley in the second inning.
Xavier Edwards reached on a walk and Liam Hicks singled before Pauley’s first home run of the season. Edwards (.343) and Hicks (.314) remain among the Marlins’ top hitters in terms of batting average.
The Giants (13-15) got on the board in the third inning to cut Miami’s lead to 3-1. Jung Hoo Lee reached on a single and scored on a ground ball RBI by Luis Arraez.
Marlins right-handed pitcher Max Meyer went five innings allowing one run on four hits with five strikeouts. It was one of his best starts of the season, but Miami manager Clayton McCullough turned to his bullpen in the sixth inning, despite Meyer having only thrown 77 pitches.
McCullough said during his postgame press conference that Meyer did a great job “getting us through five.”
"I think Max has gotten a deeper arsenal now,” McCullough said, “He’s really trending and every time he takes the ball he’s put us in a position to win games.”
With Calvin Faucher on the mound for Miami, the game quickly started to turn. Casey Schmitt led off the sixth inning with a walk and scored on a double by Rafael Devers to make it a 3-2 game. The Giants tied the game 3-3 later in the inning when a Drew Gilbert single scored Devers.
The Marlins turned to Nardi in the seventh inning. After Lee singled again and Matt Chapman walked, Schmidt hit the go-ahead three-run home run to give the Giants their first lead of the game.
“I felt like what we have and where we were at to hand off, some combination of guys we had down there to get us to Pete (Fairbanks) was our best play. But the results didn’t work out,” McCullough said.
Kyle Stowers played his first game as a big leaguer at first base. Stowers is normally an outfielder and Gold Glove finalist at left field last year. The last time Stowers played first base was as a collegiate player at Stanford, which isn’t far from San Francisco.
“We’ll see how much more we utilize him there,” McCullough said. “It’s certainly nice to have that option to start or maneuver in during a game.”
Landen Roupp went 7.2 innings for the Giants with only two hits and Pauley’s homer allowed, as well as two walks and six strikeouts. Erik Miller went 1.1 innings for his second save of the season.
The Marlins head south to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers on Monday. Chris Paddack (0-4, 6.38 ERA) takes the mound for Miami against Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-2, 2.48 ERA).
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