Miami Marlins drop finale to San Francisco Giants, lose series

SAN FRANCISCO

Jorge Soler logged his first four-hit game in four seasons, but the Miami Marlins couldn’t capitalize in a 7-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday at Oracle Park.

Miami (24-23) lost two of three games to the Giants (22-24) to start a three-city, 10-game road trip. San Francisco won the series opener 4-3 on Friday while Miami won the middle game 1-0 on Saturday.

The Giants took the lead for good with two runs in the sixth inning on a Mitch Haniger RBI single that knocked Marlins starting pitcher Jesus Luzardo out of the game and Patrick Bailey sacrifice bunt against reliever Andrew Nardi. They tacked on another run in the eighth on a Casey Schmitt RBI single against Steven Okert.

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Luzardo’s final line: Six earned runs allowed on six hits and a walk while striking out eight over five-plus innings (he faced two batters in the sixth without logging an out). Before the two runs in the sixth, he gave up home runs to Bailey in the first and J.D. Davis in the third as well as a third-inning RBI double to Thairo Estrada.

Soler, the Marlins’ slugging outfielder/designated hitter, went 4 for 4 with a home run, three RBI and a run scored in the loss. It was his first four-hit game since Sept. 11, 2019, while playing for the Kansas City Royals and fourth four-hit game of his career overall.

Soler opened scoring in the first inning when he launched a 436-foot home run to left field and then hit RBI singles in the third and fifth innings to make the score 2-1 and 4-4, respectively.

Nick Fortes added a solo home run in the fourth inning.

But that wasn’t enough to keep up with the Giants, and Miami spoiled a few opportunities to tack on more.

Like in the fifth inning, after Soler’s second RBI single. Miami had runners on the corners, Jon Berti at third and Soler at first, and two outs with Bryan De La Cruz at the plate. On an 0-2 count, Soler broke trying to go to second base and got caught in a rundown. That prompted Berti to break for home, but Giants second baseman Estrada threw home to Bailey and got Berti into an eventual inning-ending rundown of his own between third and home.

They stranded two more in the sixth and had a leadoff single in the seventh erased by a double play..

Up next

The Marlins head to Denver to continue this three-city road trip for a four-game series against the Colorado Rockies starting Monday. After that, it’s a three-game set with the Los Angeles Angels starting Friday.