MIAMI _ This is the story of the Miami Marlins' weekend in a nutshell:
Giancarlo Stanton put one over the fence. No, not a home run. It was his glove, which flew off and disappeared on the other side of the wall in right-center when he leaped trying to catch a ball hit by the Dodgers' Chris Taylor.
The ball caromed off the wall and Taylor ended up with a triple, while Stanton hoisted himself up and peered over in search of his lost piece of equipment.
The Marlins never did find what they were looking for in trying to stop the hottest team in baseball, though there was a brief pause while Stanton waited for the batboy to deliver a replacement glove.
Marcell Ozuna later stole a home run from former Marlin Enrique Hernandez, climbing the wall in left field. It wasn't enough to prevent the Los Angeles Dodgers from completing their third consecutive three-game series sweep with a 3-2 matinee win.
The Marlins mounted a late threat when Christian Yelich drove a two-out, RBI single to center off All-Star closer Kenley Jansen in the eighth, and Ozuna followed with a single. But Jansen struck out pinch-hitter Justin Bour on three pitches.
Jansen breezed through the ninth for his 23rd save, and the Dodgers had their ninth consecutive win and MLB-leading 11th sweep of the season.
There was an air of inevitability to all of it, beginning with the ninth-inning meltdown Friday by closer A.J. Ramos in the game Miami should have won and continuing with Dodgers rookie phenom Cody Bellinger hitting for the cycle Saturday.
Certainly on Sunday, with the Marlins pinning hopes on a rookie making his second start in the major leagues.
Chris O'Grady, riding confidence with his 1-0 career record, really was their best option. He pitched reasonably well, allowing three runs and five hits in five innings, including Justin Turner's 11th home run.
Still, he was no match against Rich Hill, who the Marlins keep mistaking for Eliot Ness. The veteran lefty was untouchable in his last visit to Marlins Park, tossing seven perfect innings.
Hill pushed the streak to 24 up and 24 down before Ozuna led off the second with a solid double to left-center.
The Marlins finally nicked him for a run in the fifth when pinch-hitter Ichiro Suzuki singled off the pitcher's bare hand. That scored former Dodger A.J. Ellis, who had one of three Marlins doubles off Hill in five innings.
That cut the Dodgers' lead to 3-1. But with the tying runs on base, Hill made Martin Prado his ninth strikeout victim and concluded his outing by getting Stanton to ground to third.
The previous time up, Stanton, who went 1-for-10 in the series, twisted pretzel-like and fell trying to hit a Hill bender breaking in on him. He bounced it to third and was out before he could get up and out of the batter's box.
O'Grady's first start was a late-night revelation in San Francisco. He was a surprise call-up from Triple-A and turned in a stout debut against the Giants (three runs allowed in 5 1/3) in earning his first career win with a jubilant group of family and friends cheering him on at AT&T Park.
It was encouraging enough that Marlins brain trust elected to send him rather than struggling veteran Tom Koehler face an L.A. tidal wave that has now won 29 of 33 since June 7 and appears capable of rolling right through October.
The first three Dodgers hit drives totaling 1,144 feet. Christian Yelich caught the first two on the track in front of the home run sculpture. Turner's belt was pulled farther to left and landed in the Clevelander, this one just out of Ozuna's reach.
A leadoff walk to Logan Forsythe in the third and Taylor's triple led to the other two runs O'Grady allowed.
There was a mild redux of interplay between Marlins pitchers and Yasiel Puig. They had taken exception to Puig styling his two homers on Friday. They made that clear Saturday when Jose Urena buzzed him with a thigh-high heater, and the pugnacious Puig responded with a few threatening steps toward the mound.
After the game, Urena referred to him as "a little baby."
When Puig came up as a pinch hitter in the seventh Sunday, Kyle Barraclough's first pitch, a 94-mph fastball, bore in a bit higher than Urena's had and continued on to the backstop. There was no reaction this time, and Puig grounded out.
Barraclough's better move was picking off Corey Seager at second with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Still, the Marlins were left with small triumphs at a time they needed to come out strong after the All-Star break to show some potential of making an upward move in the standings before the front office shifts into seller mode.
Instead, they got a weekend full of losses. Stanton's glove was at least worth a smile.
