Jul 9, 2017; San Francisco, CA, USA; Miami Marlins pinch hitter A.J. Ellis (17) hits a home run in the eleventh inning against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Photo Credit: Andrew Villa-USA TODAY Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — Pinch-hitter A.J. Ellis and Giancarlo Stanton hit home runs in the top of the 11th inning Sunday afternoon, lifting the Miami Marlins to a 10-8 victory over the San Francisco Giants a sweep of the three-game series.
Stanton also homered in the fifth inning and scored four times for the Marlins, who completed a 6-4 trip with five wins in their last six games.
The road sweep was Miami’s first of the season and first in San Francisco since May 2012.
The Giants enter the All-Star break on a four-game losing streak.
Ellis’ homer off right-hander George Kontos (0-3), the seventh Giants pitcher, came one out after a two-base throwing error by San Francisco shortstop Brandon Crawford on an inning-opening grounder by J.T. Realmuto.
The error was just Crawford’s second in his last 66 games.
Down 0-2 in the count, Ellis got just enough of a Kontos breaking ball to bounce it off the top of the wall in left field for his first career pinch-hit homer.
Stanton followed two batters later with his solo shot to left field, completing his 23rd career multi-homer game and giving Miami a 10-7 lead.
Right-hander Nick Wittgren (2-1) got the win after retiring all six Giants he faced in the ninth and 10th innings. He struck out four of the six.
Marlins closer AJ Ramos posted his 17th save despite allowing a run in the bottom of the 11th after center fielder Christian Yelich lost pinch-hitter Kelby Tomlinson’s inning-opening fly ball in the sun for a triple. Tomlinson scored on a groundout.
The Giants scored three times in the bottom of the eighth inning to draw even at 7.
Crawford, Nick Hundley and pinch-hitter Miguel Gomez had RBI singles in the inning before right-hander Junichi Tazawa, the Marlins’ sixth pitcher, stranded the potential go-ahead run at third base by getting Conor Gillaspie to pop out and Denard Span to fly out to end the inning.
The game-tying single by Gomez was his first major league hit.
The Marlins had used a four-run seventh inning to take a 7-3 lead against Giants starter Johnny Cueto and the San Francisco bullpen.
Justin Bour had a two-run, tiebreaking single off Giants left-hander Steven Okert after the Marlins loaded the bases with no outs against Cueto.
Realmuto added an RBI single and JT Riddle a sacrifice fly off the Giants’ third pitcher, Hunter Strickland, to complete the uprising that produced a 7-3 lead.
Cueto (6-8) was charged with six runs and six hits in six innings. He walked six and struck out two.
The Giants closed within 7-4 in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI double by Span, setting up the game-tying rally in the eighth.
Stanton had three hits and Yelich and Bour two apiece for the Marlins, whose 13 hits extended their run of games with 10 or more hits to seven.
Hundley had three hits and two RBIs for the Giants, who out-hit the Marlins 14-13.
Span, Hunter Pence, Brandon Belt and Crawford added two hits apiece for San Francisco. Crawford had three RBIs.
Both teams used home runs to take early leads.
Crawford followed a Belt double with a two-run shot, his eighth homer of the season, in the second inning against Marlins starter Jose Urena to open the scoring.
Miami drew even in the third against Cueto on consecutive run-scoring doubles by Yelich and Marcell Ozuna, then went up 3-2 in the fifth on a solo homer by Stanton.
Hundley’s fourth homer, a solo shot leading off the fifth inning, created a 3-3 tie.
Urena was pulled after the fifth, having allowed three runs and five hits. He walked one and struck out three.
NOTES: The Marlins went into the All-Star break at 41-46, 5 1/2 games worse than last year’s mark. The Giants’ 34-56 record is 23 games off last year’s pace. … Marlins LF Marcell Ozuna’s RBI in the third inning was his 16th on the club’s 10-game trip, tying a franchise record set by OF Gary Sheffield in 1995 and equaled by OF Cody Ross in 2008. … Marlins OF Ichiro Suzuki flied out as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning. He went hitless in the series (0-for-1 with a sacrifice) and remained one hit behind LF Rickey Henderson (3,055) for 23rd place on the all-time list. … Giants LHP Madison Bumgarner (separated left shoulder) is scheduled to make a fourth injury-rehab start at Class A San Jose on Monday night. He has been tentatively penciled in to return to the Giants’ rotation Saturday at San Diego, following RHP Johnny Cueto. … Upon further review, Giants LF Austin Slater (torn abductor) suffered a more serious injury than originally diagnosed in Friday’s series opener. He won’t have surgery, but it’s possible he will miss the rest of the season.
