Recap: San Francisco vs. Florida

Sports Network | July 8, 2009

San Francisco, CA (Sports Network) - Juan Uribe belted a two-run home run and Barry Zito tossed 8 1/3 scoreless innings to lead the San Francisco Giants past the Florida Marlins, 3-0, in the middle installment of a three-game set at AT&T Park.

Zito (5-8) gave up just four hits and fanned six batters to collect the win for the Giants, who won 5-4 in the series opener on Monday. Zito, who won for the first time since June 21 versus Texas, improved to 4-0 in five career starts against Florida. Sergio Romo recorded the final two outs in the contest to pick up his first career save.

"He changed speeds very well. He didn't leave anything over the middle of the plate. If he did a throw a fastball that was hittable it was either in just enough for a strike or away just enough to get that fly ball or that ground ball. He was like the Zito of old. He's one of those guys like Jaime Moyer. He's got to put the ball where he wants to, to have success and he did that tonight. He kept every hitter off balance, he did his job," Florida third baseman Wes Helms said about Zito.

Edgar Renteria went 2-for-3 with a run scored for San Francisco, which has won four of its past five contests. The Giants had five hits in the tilt.

Josh Johnson (7-2) went seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits with five strikeouts to take the loss for the Marlins, who are 5-3 in their last eight games despite the loss. Johnson dropped to 0-3 in four career starts versus San Fran.

"I just made a couple of bad pitches. But its definitely something I can build on for the next start. It was good to finally find somewhat of a rhythm," Johnson said.

Florida, which was without shortstop Hanley Ramirez (right hip flexor) for a third straight game, had just four hits on Tuesday.

The Giants scored a run in the fourth to break a scoreless tie. Randy Winn doubled to center, advanced to third on Pablo Sandoval's fly out, and scored on Bengie Molina's sacrifice fly to right.

San Francisco used a two-run homer from Uribe in the fifth to go ahead 3-0. Renteria singled and scored two batters later when Uribe drove a Johnson offering over the wall in left field.

Meanwhile, Zito retired 16 of the first 17 batters he faced. Zito gave up a single to Johnson and walked Emilio Bonifacio to put runners on first and second with one out in the sixth. Helms flied out and Dan Uggla popped out, though, to end the threat.

Zito gave up a one-out single to Helms before being replaced by Romo, who retired the next two batters to preserve the victory.

These teams split a four-game set in Miami from June 5-8. The Giants are 7-4 at home against the Marlins since the start of the 2006 season...San Fran went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded three, while Florida went 0-for-3 with RISP and left four men on base.