Ricky Nolasco brought his A-Game to San Francisco and it was more than the Giants could handle. But to give the Giants their due, it wasn't their fault, no one does anything with Ricky when he is on. And boy, was he on.
The game started out to be the pitcher's duel most expected with the two starters shutting the opposing squad's hitters down for the first two innings. But in the third Giants starter Matt Cain proved to be mortal. The third inning for the Marlins started innocently enough with Omar Infante hitting a single to center. After which Ricky sent a bunt back towards the mound which was fielded by Miguel Tejada and Infante was forced at second. The next batter, Chris Coghlan, hit a grounder to short stop Mike Fontenot but the Giants couldn't turn the double-play and were only able to get Nolasco at second. However with two outs Cain walked Hanley Ramirez and then proceeded to walk Logan Morrison to load the bases in front of Gaby Sanchez. Not a good move. On a 2-2 count Gaby laced a ball to right-center that bounced off the base of the wall for a bases clearing double. The score of the game now stood at 3-0 Marlins.
In the fourth, Mike Stanton, leading off the inning, hit the first pitch he saw 400 ft. over the 399 ft. sign to increase the Marlins lead to 4-0. Cain would not allow another run for the rest of his six innings of work.
But that didn't matter it was more than enough run support for Ricky who pitched scoreless ball for 8.1 innings.
The Marlins added another run in the ninth when Cogz led off with a double and Hanley sac bunted him to third. After LoMo struck out and Gaby walked this brought Greg Dobbs to plate. Guillermo Mota was on in relief and he threw a wild pitch that somehow left the park allowing Cogz to easily score from third. 5-0 Marlins.
In the ninth, with Ricky going for the complete game shutout, Buster Posey started the inning off with a single to center. After a Nate Schierholtz ground out, Cody Ross messed everything up by hitting a double to left to put runners on second and third with one out. Ricky walked pinch-hitter Pat Burrell to load the bases and that ended the night for Nolasco. Edwin decided that 8.1 innings and 111 pitches was enough and brought on Leo Nunez to close out the game. And Leo did just that. Tejada hit a sac fly to center which plated Posey for the second out of the game. After which Emmanuel Burriss flew out to LoMo to end the game.
Final score: Marlins 5, Giants 1.
Ricky was magnificent and maybe the Giants are figuring out what the NL East is learning, that the scary person for the Marlins in an RBI situation wears Number 15 on his back.