Giants Drop Game 3 to Stanton, Marlins 5-3

Gregor Blanco had three hits, but the Giants couldn't score the big runs as Madison Bumgarner was out-dueled by Mark Buehrle in the Marlins' Game 3 win over the Giants.

The Giants will finish their four-game series in South Florida on Sunday, and they’ll be all too pleased to get away from the aquarium behind the plate and the Timothy Leary tribute in center field.

Most of all, they’ll be ecstatic to wave goodbye to Giancarlo Stanton.

The 22-year-old slugger hit two more doubles in the Giants’ 5-3 loss Saturday; he is 7-for-11 with three doubles and two home runs in the series.

He crushed the Giants back in San Francisco, too. In his last seven games against them, he’s 13-for-30 (.433) with five doubles, five home runs and eight RBIs.

The damage wasn’t limited to the barrel of Stanton’s bat, though. First baseman Brett Pill made a questionable decision that might have compounded a three-run third inning behind Madison Bumgarner. Emmanuel Burriss skipped a throw. And when the Giants trailed by four runs in the seventh, Angel Pagan got thrown out at third base on a ground ball back to the mound.

Starting pitching report

Bumgarner’s winless streak is at four consecutive starts after he made too many mistakes in the strike zone while allowing five runs (four earned) in six innings.

Stanton hammered a double in the second inning and Donovan Solano, playing in his fifth major league game, singled him home.

Bumgarner ran into more trouble when he allowed three consecutive one-out singles in the third. Jose Reyes and Omar Infante executed a double-steal and Hanley Ramirez grounded his hit through the left side to score the tiebreaking run. After a walk to Stanton (including a buzzed ball four) loaded the bases, Bumgarner got Logan Morrison to hit a grounder to Pill.

Instead of throwing for the force at home, Pill went to second base to try for the double play. Shortstop Emmanuel Burriss recorded the out but skipped his throw to first base (which wasn’t in time anyway) and it dribbled past Bumgarner into foul territory. Burriss was charged with the error, which allowed a second run to score on the play.

Stanton started another rally in the sixth when he and Morrison hit consecutive doubles.

Bullpen report

Steve Edlefsen has rebounded well from a couple of rough outings. He retired all four hitters he faced and Jeremy Affeldt allowed two hits before escaping a scoreless eighth.

At the plate

Burriss had a nice sequence in the third inning, when he legged out a double and then hustled to score on Gregor Blanco’s single.

Burriss’s double was his first extra-base hit since June of last season; he had gone 145 at-bats without an extra-base hit, four short of the San Francisco-era franchise record (Brett Butler, 1990).

Gregor Blanco, despite making the game’s final out, had another productive game in the leadoff spot. He singled in each of his first three trips, twice beating out infield hits. He has reached safely in 10 of 16 plate appearances in the series.

But the middle of the order looked tired against Mark Buehrle, a control artist who doesn’t leave much over the middle and lulls you to sleep.

Melky Cabrera, despite a scorching month of May and overwhelming career numbers against Buehrle, was 0-for-4 with a strikeout to end a nine-game hitting streak. He even tried to bunt for a hit. Buster Posey also was 0-for-4.

Still, the Giants found a way to get the tying run on base in the ninth.

First, they got a run closer in the eighth when Ryan Theriot tripled and scored on a ground out. Then the Giants forced struggling closer Heath Bell to another early exit when Pagan singled and Arias and pinch hitter Aubrey Huff drew walks.

The Giants had one position player remaining and that was Nate Schierholtz, who did well to hit a sacrifice fly against sidewinding left-hander Randy Choate. But Blanco struck out to end it.

In field

Buehrle won’t ever make a play better than his between-the-legs flip a couple years ago, but he deftly covered the bag after second baseman Omar Infante made a full-extension dive to take a hit away from Cabrera in the eighth.

Attendance

Oddly, the Marlins didn’t announce it. Looked like the biggest crowd of the series, though.

Up next

The Giants will try for a four-game split in Miami and a winning record on their seven-game road trip Sunday. It’ll be right-hander Matt Cain (4-2, 2.94) vs. tough right-hander Ricky Nolasco (5-2, 4.41).

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