You can point to any number of miscues from the Giants’ contest against the Marlins on Saturday evening as the reason San Francisco lost.
Starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija chose his first inning struggles.
After San Francisco dropped Friday night’s ballgame by a final of 6-1, Miami jumped out to a quick start on Saturday behind a two-run first inning against the Giants’ right-hander.
Marlins’ second baseman Dee Gordon opened the game with a single to left field, and after Samardzija induced a groundout from Miami slugger Giancarlo Stanton, center fielder Christian Yelich roped an RBI double to give his team a 1-0 lead.
“We were going out there trying to get a quick inning, Dee (Gordon) gets on there with a little reach out over the third baseman you know and then you’re battling when you get speed on the bases right there out of the gates with no outs and Stanton and so and so on after that,” Samardzija said.
Marlins’ left fielder Marcell Ozuna followed up Yelich’s double with an RBI single that bounced under the glove of Giants’ second baseman Joe Panik, and that early mistake wound up haunting the Giants late in a 5-4 defeat.
“You’ve got to pitch and I thought we battled and made some good pitches, Ozuna hit one through the hole there that hurt but we got out of it with a little bit of damage but obviously it ended up being the difference in the game,” Samardzija said. “It’s always great to go out there and get 1-2-3 in the first.”
Samardzija gave up a deep home run to Marlins’ first baseman Justin Bour in the top of the fourth inning, but it was a one-out double off the bat of Stanton in the fifth inning that marked the loudest contact of any Miami hitter.
After retiring Gordon to lead off the frame, Samardzija left a slider up in the zone and Stanton lined it off the left field wall en route to his third extra base hit of the series.
“He’s (Stanton) one of those guys that, you make your pitches, you got a chance and he’s feeling pretty good right now so I figured he’d be swinging and we took advantage of him a couple of times with the sliders and then the sinker in and then we hung a slider to him and he barely hit it out there I think,” Samardzija said. “It was like a slight 118 off the bat so I think he missed it a little bit.”
The Notre Dame product battled through seven innings of work on Saturday night and gave the Giants’ bullpen a considerable break a night after left-hander Matt Moore lasted just 3 and 1/3 innings in the series-opener. Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said he didn’t think Samardzija was as sharp as he’s been over his past few starts, but after the game, Samardzija said he didn’t notice a significant difference in the way he felt on the mound.
“I felt alright, pretty standard, I felt alright, everything was coming out pretty well,” Samardizja said.