Giants offense erupts with timely homers. Schmitt and Ramos power San Francisco past Miami in a slugfest honoring Brandon Belt.
The Miami Marlins fell victim to the long ball and lost 6-2 to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday.
The Giants (12-15) were honoring former first baseman Brandon Belt, who played 12 years for San Francisco and won two World Series titles in 2012 and 2014.
The Marlins (13-14) are 3-8 on the road this season.
Marlins right-handed Eury Pérez lasted 5.1 innings, surrendering four runs on seven hits, two walks and six strikeouts in his first career start against the Giants. He was on the road to tossing his second consecutive gem until the sixth inning.
“I thought Eury was fantastic,” Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said. “A couple leadoff walks but really other than that, he filled it up. He had a good heater. He was able to get some guys late in counts with some good fastballs.”
Drew Gilbert tied the game 1-1 with a solo home run in the fifth inning. Casey Schmitt gave the Giants the lead with a two-run homer in the sixth inning.
“It kind of turned there on the Schmitt swing,” McCullough said.
The Giants started the sixth inning rally with a double by Matt Chapman. He scored on Schmitt’s blast. Jung Hoo Lee reached on a walk, advanced on a Heliot Ramos single and scored on a base hit by Patrick Bailey to put San Francisco up 4-1.
The Marlins got their first run in the third inning in the lineup’s second time around the order. Agustín Ramírez, a power hitting catcher batting lead off, led off the rally with a single and a stolen base. Xavier Edwards, a contact bat who’s batting cleanup, drove him home on a RBI knock.
The Giants added two more insurance runs in the eighth inning. Ramos led off with a solo home run of his own and Luis Arraez drove in Bailey with an RBI double to put San Francisco up 6-1.
The Marlins went out with a little fight in the ninth inning. Owen Caissie reached on a throwing error and scored on an RBI single by Jakob Marsee.
Robby Ray worked five innings in his start for the Giants, allowing one run on four hits while striking out four. Left-hander Matt Gage earned the victory in relief after recording key outs in the middle innings, and the Giants bullpen combined to limit Miami late.
The Marlins managed six hits. Edwards and Ramírez each collected two hits.
“We just couldn’t punch through against Ray,” McCullough said.
San Francisco finished with 11 hits and continued to get production throughout the lineup. Schmitt led the way with two hits, two RBIs and a walk. Lee reached base three times on two hits and a walk, while Chapman scored twice and Bailey added a run-scoring hit.
The Marlins will look to capture their first series win with the finale on Sunday behind right-hander Max Meyer (1-0, 3.96 ERA), while the Giants are expected to send Landen Roupp (4-1, 2.28 ERA) to the mound.
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