This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Matt Chapman lined a two-out, two-strike, bases-clearing double in the eighth inning Friday night, rallying the San Francisco Giants to a 3-1 victory over the visiting Miami Marlins in the opener of a three-game series.
The Giants, who began a six-game homestand, snapped a two-game losing streak, reached .500 at 68-68 and remained 6 1/2 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the race for the final National League wild-card playoff spot.
In a game that featured a classic pitchers’ duel between the Giants’ Blake Snell and Marlins’ Adam Oller, Miami used a seventh-inning RBI single by David Hensley to put up the contest’s only run until Chapman’s big hit.
Pinch hitter Jerar Encarnacion led off the eighth with a single off Marlins reliever Mike Baumann (3-1) before consecutive one-out walks to Mike Yastrzemski and Heliot Ramos loaded the bases.
Baumann struck out Michael Conforto, but Chapman then greeted reliever George Soriano with a liner to left-center, scoring all three baserunners.
Tyler Rogers (3-4), who pitched a 1-2-3 top of the eighth, was credited with the win. Ryan Walker recorded his fifth save by striking out two of the three men he faced in the ninth.
For most of the night, Oller got the better of Snell, leading to Miami’s late 1-0 lead as it pursued a fourth win in six games. The Marlins right-hander shut out the Giants on two hits over six innings, walking two and striking out a career-best eight.
For six innings, the visitors were equally ineffective against Snell, who matched Oller’s zeros heading into the seventh. That’s when Miami finally broke through as Derek Hill singled, stole second, and scored on Hensley’s one-out hit.
Snell completed seven innings, allowing one run and four hits. He walked one and struck out eight.
Chapman was the only player in the game with multiple hits, adding a single to his decisive double.
The Giants out-hit the Marlins 6-4.
–Field Level Media
