By Jeremy Kahn

MIAMI-Maybe the four-day All-Star break from baseball was helpful for the San Francisco Giants and their bats.

After limping to the finish line at the end of the first half one game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Giants bats awoke in a big way in the opener of their three-game series against the Miami Marlins, as they defeated the Marlins 9-1 before only 23,017 at Marlins Park.

“They came out and played well this first game, this is a great sign and off a tough pitcher, Eovaldi has great stuff,” said Bruce Bochy.

With the victory, coupled with the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium, the Giants are once again in sole possession of first place by mere percentage points in the National League West.

This was the Giants 39th win of the season when they score the first run of the game, and are now 39-15 when they hit a home run.

Their .722 winning percentage when hitting a home run in a game is the highest in the National League.

Brandon Crawford got the Giants on the board in the top of the second inning, as he took a Nathan Eovaldi offering over the right field wall for his eighth home run of the season.

“With him you have to, he does have four good pitches,” said Crawford.

It was an 11 pitch at-bat for Crawford against Eovaldi.

“Great at-bat, and he did a nice job,” said Bochy.

Buster Posey got in on the act in the top of the third inning, as he singled in Hunter Pence, who walked with one out in the inning.

After Pablo Sandoval doubled Posey to third base, Michael Morse singled in Posey for the Giants second run of the inning and their fourth of the evening.

The Giants blew the game wide open in the top of the fifth inning, as they scored five runs, as Posey drove in his second run of the game with a single that scored Pence, after he led off the inning with a double.

Following Posey’s second single and second run batted in of the game, Sandoval took an Eovaldi pitch and put it into the right field seats for his 12th home run of the season.

Crawford rounded out the scoring for the Giants in both the inning and the game, as he hit a sacrifice fly Marcell Ozuna in centerfield to score Morse, who doubled with one out.

This was the fifth time this season that the Giants have scored five or more runs in an inning, and the fourth time on the road.

Madison Bumgarner pitched a great game, as he went six innings, allowing one run, while scattering four hits, walking two and struck out, as he upped his record to 11-7 on the season.

“Good to see everybody playing like that, good to see, I guess everybody had a good All-Star break,” said Bumgarner.

Bumgarner raised his record to 7-2 with a 1.94 earned run average in 11 road starts this season.

Before being taken out of the game and being replaced by Hector Sanchez, Posey went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two runs batted in.

Posey was not only the Giants player to pickup three hits on the night, as Morse also went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a run batted in.

The Giants 1-6 batters went 11-for-22 with eight runs scored and six runs batted in.

Crawford was the only batter out of the 7-8-9 hitters to get a hit, score a run and drive in any runs, as he drove in three on the evening.

As a team, the Giants went 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Second baseman Joe Panik went 2-for-5 at the plate, and it was the fifth time since being recalled from Fresno on June 20 that he had two hits in the same game.

This was the fifth three-hit game of the season for Morse, his first since June 12 at home versus the Washington Nationals.

It was an off night for Eovaldi, who lasted just four innings, allowing eight runs on nine hits, walking one and striking out five and allowing those two home runs and fell to 5-5 on the season.

Yusmeiro Petit replaced Bumgarner in the bottom of the seventh inning, and he pitched one inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.

Javier Lopez came on in the bottom of the eighth inning, and retired Christian Yelich, but then gave up a single to Ed Lucas before being replaced by Juan Gutierrez.

The right-hander threw two-thirds of an inning, allowing one hit.

The Giants fourth reliever Jean Machi finished the game, as he pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout and the Giants raised their record on the season to 53-43.

“Some guys in the pen could use work,” said Bochy.

On the other side of things, Marlins manager Mike Redmond used four different relievers before the night was done, as Dan Jennings, Chris Hatcher, Mike Dunn, Bryan Morris and Steve Cishek finished the final five innings for the Marlins, who fall to 44-51 on the season.

Giancarlo Stanton drove in the only Marlins run of the evening, as he took a Bumgarner pitch and planted it into the fixture in left-center field and according to ESPN Stats Info, it was measured at 466 feet.

It was the 139th career home run for Stanton, moving him into fourth place on the Marlins all-time home run list, passing Miguel Cabrera,

Stanton trails Dan Uggla by 15 (154) home runs for the most in team history, then it is Hanley Ramirez with 148 and Mike Lowell with 143.

Christian Yelich extended his hitting streak up to 11 games, as he went 1-for-4.