Griffin Conine belted his first major league home run, fellow rookie Connor Norby added his fifth and the visiting Miami Marlins held on for a 4-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night.
Edward Cabrera limited the Giants to one earned run over 5 1/3 innings to snap a personal three-game losing streak, helping Miami draw even in the three-game series after losing the opener 3-1 on Friday.
Conine, the son of former Marlins slugger Jeff Conine, gave Miami a lead it never relinquished with a two-run shot off Giants starter Mason Black (0-2) in the second inning. The homer came in the 27-year-old’s 14th big-league at-bat.
Norby’s homer, a solo shot, led off the sixth after the Giants had closed within 2-1 on a Mike Yastrzemski RBI infield out in the previous inning. Three of Norby’s five homers have come in 12 games since he was acquired by the Marlins from the Baltimore Orioles at the trade deadline.
The Giants ended Cabrera’s night with another single run in the sixth, this one on a Tyler Fitzgerald RBI single. But again Miami retaliated immediately, going up 4-2 in the seventh when Otto Lopez walked, stole second and advanced a base apiece on a pair of ground balls.
The Marlins appeared to catch a break in the inning when Giants shortstop Fitzgerald was deemed to have interfered with Lopez’s slide into second base while tagging him out on his steal attempt.
Seeking to gain a game on the Atlanta Braves in the National League wild-card race, the Giants closed within one a final time when Michael Conforto bombed his 15th homer, a solo shot, in the eighth.
Jesus Tinoco finished the eighth without further damage before Calvin Faucher came on to strike out two of the three men he faced in the ninth for his fifth save.
Cabrera (3-6) got the win after allowing two runs (one earned) and six hits in his 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three.
Black took the loss despite limiting the Marlins to just two runs and four hits in five innings with no walks and six strikeouts.
Jesus Sanchez collected a pair of singles for the Marlins, who improved to 3-3 on a seven-game Western swing that ends Sunday.
Conforto and Jerar Encarnacion had two hits each for the Giants, who lost for the third time in their last four games.
–Field Level Media