MIAMI _ The bat shattered on impact. Giancarlo Stanton was left holding a splintered handle, which he flipped aside disdainfully.
Somehow the ball kept going on an arc to left field, eventually banging off the fence in front of the Clevelander nightclub just out of reach of Giants outfielder Angel Pagan. Statcast measured it at 96 mph off the bat with a projected distance of 369 feet, the longest broken-bat hit you're likely to see.
Most of the bat landed headed toward third base while Stanton ended up on second with a RBI double that got the Marlins going in a two-run first inning.
Stanton's double was the only hit of notable substance duel Tuesday in a pitchers' duel between Tom Koehler and Matt Moore at Marlins Park.
Those two runs were enough for Koehler, who shut out the Giants for seven innings on two hits in a 2-0 victory that evened the series between two teams vying in tight races for postseason spots.
Unlike Monday, when the Marlins' bullpen wasted a strong start from Jose Fernandez on the way to a 14-inning defeat, the relief corps put the finishing touches on Koehler's superlative performance.
Fernando Rodney recorded his second save for the Marlins (19th overall) a few hours after closer A.J. Ramos was placed on the disabled list with a fractured finger, and launched his first celebratory arrow under the roof in Little Havana.
Koehler (9-8) continued a resurgent second-half of the season that has seen him allow no more than one earned run in his past four starts.
The right-hander set down 10 in a row before walking Joe Panik with two outs in the seventh. He bore down and got Trevor Brown to pop out to first on his 112th and final pitch. He struck out six and walked three.
It was Koehler's second-highest pitch total of the season and the fourth time he's gone at least seven innings.
A night after Brandon Crawford became the first player with seven hits in a game since 1975, Koehler retired the Giants shortstop all three times, twice on strikes. He also had an inning-ending fly out to left against Brian Ellington in the eighth, leaving two runners on base.
Koehler and Moore both threw a lot of pitches but mostly avoided solid contact.
After issuing back-to-back walks in the first, Koehler didn't let another runner into scoring position.
Koehler didn't allow a hit until Angel Pagan fought off a fastball on the inner half and blooped it softly to left with two outs in the third. Conor Gillaspie slapped a single to right in the fourth for the only other hit off Koehler.
After hits by Martin Prado and Stanton in the first, the Marlins got only one more hit off Moore when Christian Yelich sent a seeing-eye single to center with two outs in the fifth. The left-hander, making his second start for the Giants since being acquired from Tampa Bay, walked five while completing six innings.
Koehler overcame shaky command initially. It had been a while since he had one of those laborious first innings that have hamstrung him at times. This one only affected his pitch count, which reached 28 without yielding a hit or run.
The key was striking out Crawford, ending a string of hits in five consecutive at-bats, including the decisive RBI single in the 14th innings Monday.
Koehler zeroed in after that and used his breaking pitches effectively after getting ahead with fastballs.
He kept feeding Crawford off-speed pitches and got him swinging again in the fourth on a 3-2 slider.
A nine-pitch sixth inning extended Koehler's outing, and he finished strong, retiring 11 of the final 12 hitters he faced.
Koehler also put together an impressive at-bat of his own to draw a two-out walk in the second. He fouled off four pitches with two strikes during the 10-pitch duel with Moore.
