By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–German Marquez may be on pace for his most wins in his six major league seasons along with his first All-Star Game appearance last month, but he can’t beat the Giants.

Marquez is 0-4 against the Giants this year with a 13.82 ERA, and last night’s 7-0 drubbing at Oracle Park may have been his worst outing yet against the G-Men. Against everyone, Marquez is 10-9 with a 3.77 ERA.

“I continue to make my pitches and continue to work, but I’m really not sure,” Marquez answered when asked about his struggles against San Francisco.

 “He was really focused tonight to turn the tide on these guys,” manager Bud Black said of German. “It’s just that he didn’t make any pitches.”

In his career, German is 4-9 against the Giants with an ERA of 7.19. But in his six years in Denver, he’s never seen a Giants’ team this good. Or a Giants’ team that treats him this bad. On Thursday, German expended 81 pitches to get through four innings, capped off by a six-run outburst in which everything the Giants hit was hit hard. Lamonte Wade Jr. typified the inning with a 430-foot bomb above Triples Alley where home runs rarely land. In fact, experienced Giants’ hitters know not to elevate pitches in that area of the ballpark because they usually result in frustrating outs.

But the fourth inning on Thursday was its own animal for Marquez. After Brandon Belt was retired, Brandon Crawford, Mike Yastrzemski and Curt Casali reached on hard-hit balls. Alex Dickerson was intentionally walked to get to pitcher Logan Webb, but Webb disrupted that strategy with a two-run single that traveled 399 feet and almost got out. Wade followed with his blast that had him looking like Barry Bonds with the poor location of the pitch and his classic swing follow through. Wade’s ball left the yard at 107 mph.

I joke around saying I’m gonna hit a home run and I almost did,” Webb said afterwards.

Webb was just as impressive with his pitching performance in which he went six innings, allowing three hits and striking out eight. Webb has become the Giants’ best pitcher of late by stringing together four, consecutive quality starts while the other starters have had their post All-Star break struggles. Webb is 4-0 at Oracle Park and his strikeout totals (17 combined) in his last two outings are eye-opening.

“Ever since he came off the IL, he’s been an absolute gem on the mound and a bulldog,” Curt Casali said of Webb.

The Giants increased their lead in the NL West to five games with the win, the first time they’ve held a lead that large this season. They’ve won five straight and 10 of 12 to improve their major-league best mark to 74-41. The Giants haven’t had a won-loss record this good after 115 games since 1993 when Dusty Baker’s first year as manager saw them open 77-38.

On Friday, the Giants turn to Anthony DeSclafani in a matchup with Austin Gomber. DeSclafani hasn’t won any of his last four starts since beating the Washington Nationals on July 10.