Posey Stays Hot While Giants Fall

Giants Fall 4-3 to Florida

The Florida Marlins have gradually been working their way back above .500, back into playoff contention.

Dan Uggla and Mike Stanton each hit solo homers and the Marlins moved above the .500 mark for the first time since early June with a 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Monday night.

Giants rookie Buster Posey extended his hitting streak to 19 games, three shy of matching Hall of Famer Willie McCovey's San Francisco rookie record set in 1959.

Posey held a Barry Bonds-like pregame press conference in the dugout and received a rousing ovation when announced before first pitch. "It's pretty cool," he said of chasing McCovey's mark.

The Marlins kicked off a key seven-game West Coast trip against the Giants and the NL West-leading San Diego Padres. Florida went 7-3 on its recent homestand, including six wins by one run and four via walkoff hits.

Ricky Nolasco (11-7) struck out seven and allowed four hits and one run in 6 1-3 strong innings to win for the sixth time in seven starts. Cody Ross had a sacrifice fly and Stanton added an insurance RBI double in the eighth.

Barry Zito (8-6), the first of three lefty starters Florida will face this series, lost for the first time in seven career starts against the Marlins and the Giants had their four-game winning streak snapped. This series is a matchup of two surging teams trying to stay in the playoff chase.

Florida is 50-49, above .500 for the first time since the club was 28-27 on June 3.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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