MLB: GIANTS VS. MIAMI San Francisco Giants’ relief squanders lead in Miami

The Giants’ relief corps, maligned for the season’s opening week, had started to turn things around on this road trip. That is, until Jordan Hicks exited his start Tuesday, handing off a tied game to Ryan Walker to begin the bottom of the sixth.

The score didn’t stay even for long.

Walker lived up to his last name, and Taylor Rogers wasn’t much more effective. The relief duo allowed the Marlins to score three runs in the sixth inning, which put the game out of reach for the Giants in a 6-3 loss

in front of another sparse crowd at loandepot Park.

“We gave up some runs there, especially in the sixth,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Not Walk’s best day, but he’s been pretty reliable for us. Once it’s a tied game, we feel pretty good about bringing him in there.”

Brought in to face the

left-handed Luis Arraez with the bases loaded and one run already in, Rogers got ahead 0-1, then fired a 93-mph fastball. Arraez, a two-time batting champ, laced the pitch into left field, and Tim Anderson scored easily from third base. Right behind him was the first of Walker’s two free passes, Emmanuel Rivera.

The three runs in the sixth amounted to as many as the bullpen had allowed in 12 innings of work over the first four games of this trip, a 2.25 ERA. Nick Avila allowed Miami to tack on one more in the seventh, negating Lamonte Wade

Jr.’s RBI single in the top half of the inning.

Dating back to the previous 10 contests, the group had limited opponents to a .204 batting average and a .597 OPS for a 2.90 ERA, the fifth-best in the majors, compared to its 7.46 ERA over the first seven games of the season.

“Every now and then,” Melvin said, “you’re going to have an off-outing.”