SAN FRANCISCO -- While Buster Posey's left-ankle injury overshadowed everything else that happened in AT&T Park on Wednesday night, the Giants also suffered a second straight disappointing loss on their home field despite yet another unbelievable comeback.
Down four runs entering the bottom of the ninth, San Francisco rallied to tie the game and send it into extra innings but ultimately fell short when Scott Cousins ran over Posey and scored on Emilio Bonifacio's sacrifice fly in the 12th inning, giving the Marlins a 7-6 victory.
"What a comeback. To come up short, that's a tough one. The way it ended, that makes it even harder," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "But the guys battled back hard."
The Giants (27-21) were within striking distance entering the ninth, down only one run before the Marlins (28-19) added three more on Mike Stanton's three-run double off reliever Javier Lopez and pushed their lead to four. But as the Giants have done all season, and dating back to last year's World Series run, they bounced back when they seemed all but out of it -- even after a large portion of the club's 20th straight home sellout crowd had filed out of the stands.
The rally began with Nate Schierholtz's leadoff single off Marlins reliever Edward Mujica. Miguel Tejada blooped a double to right field one out later. After right-hander Leo Nunez entered the game, catcher John Buck mishandled the closer's first pitch for a passed ball that scored Schierholtz and moved Tejada to third. Tejada scored on pinch-hitter Pat Burrell's bloop single to center. After Andres Torres struck out, Freddy Sanchez sliced his fourth hit of the game, a double down the right-field line. Burrell held at third base.
Up came Aubrey Huff, who was 0-for-4 and struck out in each of his first three at-bats with runners on base, with one frustrating punchout prompting Huff to slam his bat to the ground, splintering it in two. But there was no frustration following his fifth at-bat, only raucous cheers from the remaining fans after he singled to left-center field on a 2-2 pitch, scoring Burrell and Sanchez to tie the game.
Posey extended his hitting streak to 13 games -- the longest active streak in the Majors -- with a single following Huff's game-tying hit, but Cody Ross flied out to send the game into extras.
Before Wednesday, the largest deficit the Giants overcame this season was three runs, a feat they accomplished four times.
"You can't say enough about how they came back there, because we weren't doing much there and finally came back in the ninth," Bochy said. "Just couldn't quite finish it. We had a couple chances there but just couldn't finish it."
Brian Wilson pitched two scoreless frames to keep the game knotted at 6, but Buck's single off Guillermo Mota (2-1) opened the Marlins' half of the 12th. Cousins' unsuccessful sacrifice-bunt attempt forced Buck at second base. Omar Infante singled, bringing Bonifacio to the plate and setting up Cousins to tag up on the play that ultimately decided the game.
"I knelt over him and tried to see if he was all right. He's a great guy and a great player," Cousins said of Posey. "I'm not trying to end anybody's season or anything like that. I am just trying to play hard. He didn't say much. You could tell he was in pain. When Bruce came out, he was pretty frustrated. I didn't want to stick around and make things any tenser, so I decided to get out of there."
The Marlins jumped all over left-hander Madison Bumgarner in the first to establish their early lead. Chris Coghlan started with a single, moved to second on Logan Morrison's base hit to right field and scored on Gaby Sanchez's single to center. Florida right fielder Mike Stanton, who finished the day 4-for-6 with four RBIs, added to the margin with a double down the left-field line to score Morrison, putting the Marlins up 2-0.
Bumgarner gave up another run in the fifth, when Coghlan doubled to left, stole third and came home a groundout by Hanley Ramirez that Emmannuel Burris, playing shortstop in place of the injured Mike Fontenot (mild groin strain), couldn't field in time to make the throw home.
Aside from allowing that run, Bochy said he was impressed with how well Bumgarner calmed down and kept the Giants close enough to stage their ninth-inning comeback.
"He regrouped, and it says a lot about how he's maturing as a pitcher and growing and kept us in the game and gave us a chance to come back," Bochy said. "Great job by him not caving in."
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