The Giants will never play a normal series against the Marlins, those Miami darlings. They’re a quirky team, from the aquaria to the home run monstrosity, to Logan Morrison’s twitter avatar.

And then there’s Giancarlo Stanton, who reminds me of how terrified I was of Kyle Blanks, if Kyle Blanks ever actually managed to stay healthy. Stanton is a beast of a man, who the Marlins drafted in the second round of the 2007 draft. The Giants drafted Madison Bumgarner that year, who has worked out pretty well, and Tim Alderson, who the Giants traded away to get Freddy Sanchez. So would you really rather have Stanton than Sanchez? Wait, don’t answer that.

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I had a really good feeling about this game for, roughly, 7 2/3 innings. I can’t remember exactly what changed around that time, but it was fairly traumatic. I understand Bruce Bochy’s decision to leave Madison Bumgarner in the game to face Ryan Braun, especially considering Bumgarner’s dominance up to that point and the fact that he made Braun look silly a couple of times, but it sure didn’t end well. Hopefully Bumgarner learned a lesson, particularly not to groove a slider down the middle to Ryan Braun while he’s holding a baseball bat.

Edit: Stupid Ryan Braun ruined a perfectly good intro to this wrap. While the below still applies, take it with a grain of Morton’s Coarse Kosher Salt. I’m not gonna rewrite this whole darn thing. Stupid Ryan Braun.

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I feel like I can’t go a day without describing that day’s Giants game as “weird.” But this game was weird.

For the first 6 innings, this game was vintage 2011, except for the whole getting-on-base part. Tyson Ross looked bad, but the Giants couldn’t do anything with it. By the beginning of the 7th, it looked like Tyson Ross had had a good day, when one well-timed hit by the Giants would’ve made it look bad. The Giants grounded into four double plays, and generally acted like there was a giant spider sitting on home plate that nobody wanted to go near.

But then the floodgates opened in the 7th. Manny Burriss legged out an infield hit, which is his M.O. at this point, and Ryan Vogelsong Jeter’d was hit by a pitch. Then Grant Balfour came in threw FourBals to Gregor Blanco, to load the bases. Free rally! The red-hot Brandon Crawford came up and promptly struck out, and it seemed like one of those innings. It was GIDP time.

But wait, a sac fly! A ground-rule double! An RBI single! What is this madness? Suddenly it was 4-0, and Javier Lopez was even more ridiculously unhittable than usual.

But really, Ryan Vogelsong. In a game where the 1-5 hitters went 8-for-16, and the San Francisco Giants drew 5 walks, the story was Ryan Vogelsong. His command and control were as good as I’ve seen them, and the game never looked out of control. Melky Cabrera made an amazing catch to start of the game, the kind of play that an outfielder will make when they’re trying to preserve a no-hitter. Maybe he knew something we didn’t. Nice job, Vogey.

Also, I’m convinced that losing his hitting streak is the best thing that could have happened to Angel Pagan. Before today’s game, in the nine games since then, he’s hit .455/.561/.545, plus today’s 2-for-4. By the end of his streak, it seemed like he was reaching, just trying to poke a single. Now, he’s walking and slugging.

Brandon Watch 2012:

Crawford: Another multi-hit game, making him 9-for-27 in the last week, with three walks. I’m not sure if having him in the 2-hole is actually affecting his hitting, but it sure isn’t hurting. Keep it up.

Belt: 0-for-3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts in key RBI spots. As impressed as I am in general by Brandon Belt, he certainly does have at-bats that make him look pretty bad.

Stats of the Game:

223: Melky Cabrera’s on-pace number for hits this year

7.8: Jonathan Sanchez’s BB/9 this year

6.75: Jonathan Sanchez’s ERA this year

4: Number of games in which Angel Pagan has not reached base

2: The number of times Vida Blue referred to Tyson Ross as “Cody Ross” in the postgamer

1.855: Jonathan Sanchez’s WHIP this year

Bonus of the Day:

Imagine if the Giants had Jemile Weeks.