San Francisco Giants’ Michael Conforto is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run against the Miami Marlins during the 11th inning at LoanDepot Park in Miami on Wed Apr 19, 2023 (AP News photo)

Giants Avoid Sweep Beating Marlins In 11 Innings 5-2

By Barbara Mason

It’s no secret that the San Francisco Giants (6-11) have been struggling for awhile now. Wednesday afternoon they took on the Miami Marlins (10-9) hoping to avoid a sweep. The losses by one run, the extra inning losses are starting to mount and are becoming a far too familiar scenario. While the Giants are not getting blown out in any of these losses they are not getting many positive results with poor offense. Hot starts with cold finishes has been the order of this road trip. The Giants got that turned around in game three of this series with a 5-2 win avoiding getting swept by the Marlins at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

There was not much going on for either team in the first three innings of this game. Darin Ruf got the Giants up on the board in the fourth inning with a one-run double. Wilmer Flores scored and the Giants had a 1-0 lead. The Giants would not have another hit for the remainder of the game.

The Marlins would tie up the game in the fifth inning 1-1. A one-run single from Garrett Cooper drove Garrett Hampson home and this game was even.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Marlins had runners on first and second with two outs and the Giants had some work to do trying to get to a tenth inning and prevent the walk-off. Miami was unable to close out the game and we had extra innings coming up.

The Giants had runner Joey Bart on third base in the tenth inning, couldn’t bring him home and the Marlins had another walk-off chance. Miami had a double steal in the tenth and had the bases loaded with one out. The Giants had two huge strike outs to end the inning and relief pitcher Camilo Doval got San Francisco out of a very sticky situation, getting this game into an 11th inning.

The hit that the Giants had been waiting for all game came off the bat of Michael Conforto hitting a two run homer and San Francisco led 3-1. The Giants had finally gotten the hits they needed to close out a game. San Francisco was not done yet. Mike Yastrzemski took advantage of a hanging breaking ball hitting his second home run of the series, a two-run homer, and the Giants had a 5-1 lead.

Despite the lead this win did not come easy for the Giants. The Marlins loaded the bases with two outs trailing 5-2 in the bottom of the eleventh. San Francisco got out of it with some great pitching and finally won a game.

The Giants had avoided the sweep as they finish up this road trip and head home for a four game series with the New York Mets which starts up Thursday night. Sean Manea (0-0 ERA 4.76) will take the mound for the Giants and Kodai Senga (2-0 ERA 3.38) will start for the Mets. First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 PM.