Blach pitches Giants past Marlins in 16

Astros beat A’s to finish sweep

MIAMI (TNS) – Ty Blach and Pablo Sandoval finished the job for the Giants, combining for extrainning heroics that helped San Francisco clinch a marathon 6-3, 16-inning victory over the Marlins on Thursday.

Rookie right-hander Dereck Rodríguez set a new career-high with 6 innings of two-run ball, but the Giants needed 62/3 more scoreless innings of relief from Blach to salvage the final game of an otherwise miserable series.

Blach entered a tie game in the 10th inning and tossed 83 pitches before manager Bruce Bochy called on Sam Dyson to record the final out with the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 16th.

After a miscommunication between Andrew Mccutchen and Joe Panik led to a dropped fly ball and eventually a game-tying run in the ninth, the Giants recovered after losing their eighth lead of the series thanks to Blach’s remarkable relief stint.

Though the Giants scored three runs in the first two innings, they didn’t plate another run until Sandoval smashed a two-run single in the top of the 16th to put the team ahead for good. Center fielder Gorkys Hernández

Bay Area News Group/tns San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Ty Blach delivers during the 16th inning of Thursday’s 6-3 win over the Miami Marlins.

added a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3, and Blach ensured the Giants would escape Miami with at least one win.

For the second straight day, catcher Buster Posey reached base and Mccutchen brought him home with another two-run home run that pushed the Giants out in front 2-0 in the first inning. After hitting three home runs over the first two months of the season, Mccutchen’s blast to left field Thursday marked his fifth home run in 50 June at-bats.

Instead of allowing the Marlins to immediately creep back into Thursday’s contest, the Giants added to their advantage in the second inning as Mac Williamson drilled an 0-2 offering from starter Dan Straily over the left field fence. After sitting out the last two days so veterans Hunter

Pence and Austin Jackson could start in his place, Williamson returned to the lineup with a vengeance and clocked his fourth home run of the year.

The solo shot was also Williamson’s first since returning from a month-long stint on the disabled list that ended May 25.

Astros 7, A’s 3 OAKLAND – At this point, the A’s are just glad to see the Houston Astros get out of town.

Swept over a three-game series as they fell to the Astros, the A’s have now lost seven in a row to Houston and are 1-8 against the defending World Series champions this season.

The meetings between the two teams have not been very competitive. After winning their first matchup of the season, the A’s have served as a punching bag for the Astros, outscored 70-28 over the nine games.

But perhaps an even bigger loss came during the game when Matt Chapman was removed from the game with what A’s manager Bob Melvin described as a hand contusion.

Though Chapman’s left hand was swollen after he was hit on his left hand with a fastball Tuesday night, it was the right hand that began to bother Chapman, leading to Chad Pinder replacing Chapman at third base to begin the seventh inning.

As was the case throughout the series, the A’s found themselves in a hole before they even got a chance to bat after Frankie Montas surrendered two runs in the first inning, which was the amount of runs he had allowed in his previous two starts combined.

Montas was tagged for seven runs, five earned, on 11 hits and four walks with a strikeout over 51/3 innings of work as he suffered his first loss of the season.

Facing Justin Verlander for the first time since 2016, the A’s made a few dents in his line with a solo home run from Khris Davis and two-run homer from Matt Olson, but the right-hander still turned in seven strong innings, allowing just the three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.