Giancarlo Stanton is much better at hitting homers than taking them away

No one would argue that Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton is among the very best in MLB at hitting home runs. Unfortunately, he’s not nearly as adept at taking them away.

That was evidenced on Saturday when Stanton allowed what would have been a pretty spectacular robbery of the Brewers’ Domingo Santana to literally slip through his glove.

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The terrific — but ultimately fruitless — effort took place in the bottom of the second inning. Stanton did everything right in his pursuit, tracking the ball with precise steps and timing his leap perfectly. His glove was right where it needed to be, and for a split second the baseball found its home in the webbing.

Then, in an instant, that good work unraveled as the ball bounced free and trickled helplessly over the wall.

You know that feeling when the lottery numbers you usually play come in but you forgot to actually buy the tickets? Maybe you don’t, but that’s probably close to what Stanton was feeling right about here.

Don’t worry about Stanton though. He already hit the lottery when inking his $325M contract following the 2014 season. We’re more worried about Marlins pitcher Tom Koehler, who after a nine-pitch first inning saw his outing unravel following Santana’s home run.

Koehler was removed after walking Stephen Vogt with the bases loaded and was charged with seven runs. Though only three were earned after Dee Gordon botched a pickoff play and was charged with an error.

From nearly brilliant to absolutely brutal. Oh what could have been had Stanton only held on to that baseball.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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