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The most surprising development from Saturday’s game: a five-run inning by the Giants bats, a pinch-hit appearance by Anthony DeSclafani, or the unshakeable Jake McGee unraveling?
All three occurred Saturday, but the last mattered most.
The Giants’ dominant closer allowed four hits and a walk in his ninth inning, the biggest being a Starling Marte RBI single that tied it before Jorge Alfaro won it in the 10th, and the Giants fell apart in a wild, 7-6 loss to the Marlins at LoanDepot Park, dropping their first series in four even before game three arrives Sunday.
Jarlin Garcia was an out away from escaping in the 10th, but Alfaro jumped on a hanging breaking ball and lined it to left for a double, scoring the ghost runner and the speedy Jazz Chisholm from first to tie and win it. The Giants had scored one in the top of the 10th on a Brandon Belt double after DeSclafani pinch-bunted and too softly, getting on with a fielder’s choice.
McGee, who had allowed just one hit in 7 1/3 innings entering the appearance, came in with a two-run lead and struggled with command throughout. An Alfaro single cut the lead to one. There were two outs and two on when Marte stepped up, and he jumped on a first-pitch fastball and stroked it to center to tie it at 5 and send it to extras.
The blown save dropped the Giants to 8-6 and masks the work that the Giants’ offense did in the seventh inning, when they put up a five-spot in a season that has needed a breakout like that. They mounted a comeback only to cough it away.
Their pitching prior to McGee had been good enough to win, Aaron Sanchez gutting through 4 2/3 innings before the bullpen hiccups. But the hitting was nonexistent until it was irrepressible. Belt led off the seventh with his second home run of the year, turning on a hanging breaking ball from the excellent Sandy Alcantara. Two batters later, Evan Longoria crushed a double to left, and Brandon Crawford followed with an RBI single to make it 3-2.
Most concerningly, Buster Posey was drilled by a 90-mph Alcantara changeup in the left elbow and eventually left the game. There was no immediate update from the club.
The righty Alcantara was at 92 pitches and set to face Steven Duggar in his Giants 2021 debut, but Marlins manager Don Mattingly turned to southpaw Richard Bleier instead.
Gabe Kapler’s mask was surely concealing a smile as he pinch-hit the righty Slater, a far better option and one who took the fourth pitch he saw and rocketed it 421 feet to center for the go-ahead blast.
The Marlins mounted a threat in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases off Caleb Baragar and Rogers, but the submariner induced a Corey Dickerson ground out to end the frame.
The five-run inning was badly needed after what another brutal start in a brutal start to the season for the Giants’ offense. They scored just once in Friday’s loss and had scored 29 runs in their past 11 games (2.64 per). Their issues are not behind them, but they will take signs of life wherever they can find them. They rapped five hits in the seventh and had just five otherwise.
Meanwhile, the Marlins had gained separation in the sixth off a pair of struggling Giants relievers. Jose Alvarez allowed a two-out single and walk, before Kapler turned to righty Matt Wisler to get Jesus Aguilar. The move failed, Aguilar crushing a down-the-middle, hanging slider down the third-base line in the sixth to dig the Giants a 3-0 hole.
Sanchez was shaky but effective enough in a short, 4 2/3-inning outing in which he allowed one run.
The Giants’ No. 5 starter scattered five hits and three walks while striking out five, laboring through 82 pitches while never throwing a clean inning. He kept the Giants in the game, though, getting two-out flyouts in the first and second innings to strand five runners on base. He was pulled with a runner on in the fifth, but Wandy Peralta averted trouble a day after yielding a home run to Starling Marte.
The Giants’ defense did not help Sanchez’s case. In the bottom of the second, Corey Dickerson tried to steal second, and Posey backhanding the breaking ball off the dirt and fired wildly to second. Tommy La Stella couldn’t catch the throw that veered to his left, and it bounded from him without Crawford backing up the play. Dickerson then advanced to third but was stranded.
The Marlins’ only run scored against Sanchez resulted from a first-inning triple from ex-Giant Adam Duvall, just out of the reach of Duggar, that knocked in Marte.
It was an ominous start to a game that took a lot of turns.