Marlins rally but can’t complete four-game sweep
Hernandez runs out of gas after four scoreless innings against Giants.
MIAMI — There was no quit in the Marlins in their four games with the San Francisco Giants.
At least that’s what they’d leave you to believe after overcoming a deficit for the fourth consecutive day. The only difference is Thursday’s outcome — a 6-3 loss to the Giants in 16 innings — didn’t turn out in their favor.
After coming from behind once again, the Marlins finally ran out of gas in losing what was tied for the fifth-longest game in team history.
“For four straight games, we’ve been fighting, clawing, getting back into it,” said outfielder J.B. Shuck, who led the Marlins with four hits Thursday.
“We didn’t give up. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to win that one.”
After the Marlins tied it in the ninth, the teams battled through scoreless inning after scoreless inning before the Giants scored three runs in the 16th off Eieser Hernandez to avoid a four-game sweep.
Pablo Sandoval’s bases-loaded single off Hernan- dez broke the deadlock and spoiled one more bid by the Marlins to rally from a defi- cit and win.
Having depleted his bullpen, manager Don Mattingly had no choice to but to leave Hernandez on the mound and hope for him to hang on for as long as he could. Hernandez gave him four scoreless innings before coming undone in the 16th.
“I was a little bit lost, and I was trying to find myself throughout the inning,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez could have won it himself with the bat in the 13th when Giants manager Brian Bochy, knowing the Marlins had exhausted all their position players, had Starlin Castro walked intentionally to load the bases and bring up Hernandez, a pitcher who is without a major league hit.
Hernandez made contact, bouncing a high-hopper toward the mound. But Giants reliever Ty Blach reached up to make the grab and throw to first for the final out of the inning.
“Batting’s difficult, but I had a chance to win the game,” Hernandez said. “I thought I had a chance.”
After reeling off three consecutive comeback wins to push the Giants to the brink of being swept, the Marlins had to settle for a series win before heading out on a three-city trip to Baltimore, San Francisco and Denver.
The Marlins won the first three games of the series after trailing in each. On Thurs- day, they fell behind 3-0 in the second inning and were down 3-2 in the ninth when the Marlins caught a break on second baseman Joe Panik’s fielding error. Panik dropped the ball on Castro’s pop fly along the right-field line for a two-base error.
Castro advanced to third on a bunt and scored on Lewis Brinson’s sacrifice fly, sending the game to extra innings. And it prevented Dereck Rodriguez from recording the win for the Giants with his father, Pudge Rodriguez, watching from a front-row seat behind the plate all afternoon.
The 26-year-old rookie right-hander and Miami Gardens-Monsignor Pace High School graduate, who was making his third major league start, turned in a solid performance, leaving in the seventh inning with a 3-2 lead.
The Giants jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Andrew McCutchen’s two-run blast in the first and Mac Williamson’s solo shot in the second — both hit off Dan Straily.
JT Riddle’s homer off Rodriguez in the fifth and Bryan Holaday’s two-out RBI double in the seventh brought the Marlins to within a run.
The Giants had a chance to take the lead in the 11th when Brandon Crawford tried to score from first on Alen Hanson’s two-out double. But Castro took the relay from Shuck and threw to the plate, where Holaday applied the tag.
The Marlins had the winning run at third with one out in the 15th, but Justin Bour grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Long streak: Holaday extended his team-record streak of throwing out runners attempting to steal to nine in a row Thursday when he threw out Williamson at second.
The major league record of 12 straight runners caught stealing by a catcher is shared by Mike LaValliere (1993) and Jose Molina (2008).