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Nolasco masterful as Marlins down Giants

Aug 20, 2008 - 6:22 AM By Al Barba PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Ricky Nolasco logged his first career shutout to lead the Florida Marlins to a 6-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.

Nolasco (12-7) allowed two hits and one walk while striking out 11 to earn his career-high 12th win. The shutout snapped a major league record of 301 straight contests without a complete game for the Marlins.

"I had all my pitches working," Nolasco said. "I started throwing a splitter later in the game and I got some strikeouts on that. I just tried to throw as many strikes as I can. We played good defense, swung the bats and put the pressure on them. It was good to get that (complete game) out of the way, but the most important thing was to get the win.

"It's a lot of fun just knowing you have all your pitches going for strikes. That's the best feeling you can have when you know you're rolling like that."

Randy Winn registered the first hit for the Giants in the first inning, a ground ball to first base that slipped underneath the glove of a diving Mike Jacobs and into right field for a single.

"I thought it (Winn's single) probably should have went for an error," Jacobs said. "It wasn't that hard of a play. It hit off my glove and felt it was a play I definitely should have made. I was surprised they gave it a hit.

"He (Nolasco) went out there and threw well. We needed a big start out of him and I thought he gave it to us. He's been giving us good starts the last couple of months anyway. We feel pretty comfortable when he's out there."

Nolasco, who also drove in two runs, retired the next 21 batters before walking rookie Emmanuel Burriss with two outs in the eighth. He surrendered his second hit in the ninth when rookie Pablo Sandoval ripped a double down the left field line.

"He's got plus stuff and the last couple of starts he hasn't had the command of everything," rookie catcher John Baker said. "Tonight, you saw what happens when he has command of all his pitches - fastball, changeup, curveball, cutter - he can be devastating. I think that's the kind of performance we needed on both sides of the ball."

Nolasco, who was making his first career appearance against the Giants, made an impression on San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy.

"He was good. There is no getting around it," Bochy said. "That was one of the better games thrown against us. We didn't really square up on the ball until the last inning. Randy hit that ball decent. He pitched great. He mixed up his pitches and had great location."

Burriss was also impressed with Nolasco's performance.

"He did a good job pitching his game. Sometimes guys are on and I guess tonight was one of those nights," Burriss said. "He was hitting his spots and when a major league player hits his spots and throws what he wants when he wants and can do it in good locations and keep guys off-balance he's always going to have a good game and that's what you try to get away from. You try to hit those good pitches or try to keep yourself balanced."

San Francisco starter Kevin Correia (2-7) was the victim of poor defensive support as an all-rookie infield committed four errors, including two by first baseman Travis Ishikawa that accounted for Florida's first two runs. Third baseman Ryan Rohlinger and the second baseman Burriss were also charged with errors.

"You don't like to see it, but they (rookies) are going to make mistakes," Bochy said. "They have been doing a good job. Tonight was an off-night for us defensively. That is a big part of our game and we made Kevin work a little harder. That probably caught up with him in the fifth."

"That's the risk of having a bunch of infielders who are young guys and not every day is going to be good," Burriss said. "You're going to have your ups and downs and it's not that often that you see a whole infield having a bad fielding day, but it happens."

Correia was lifted with two outs in the fifth inning after allowing five runs - three earned - and seven hits while walking three in 4 2/3 innings.

Florida scored single runs in the first and second innings following Ishikawa's errors as both runs scored on infield outs.

The Marlins broke the game open in the fifth, scoring three runs with two outs to take a 5-0 lead.

Cody Ross singled and Baker followed with a bloop single inside the line in left field, plating Dan Uggla, who had reached on a base hit with one out and moved to second on Ross' hit. Nolasco capped the frame with a two-run double to left.

Jorge Cantu closed the scoring with a leadoff home run in the sixth - his 22nd.