MIAMI (AP) -- Russ Ortiz made Florida look much more like, well, the Marlins on Tuesday night.

A night after totaling 12 hits and six runs in front of a sellout crowd, Florida managed just four hits off Ortiz and lost to the San Francisco Giants 3-0 before 9,524 fans.

"That was awesome," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "That's what you want from your starters. The real good ones, they get in the sixth or seventh inning and start smelling the finish line without overthrowing."

Ortiz (1-0) pitched eight innings, striking out five and allowing three walks. Robb Nen threw a perfect ninth for his first save.

Ortiz went 18-9 with a 3.81 ERA last season, and the Giants won 23 of his 33 starts. He picked up right where he left off.

Ortiz, 25, retired the side in order in the sixth and seventh innings after allowing at least one batter to reach base in each of the first five innings. No one got past second base against him until the eighth.

"If I do my job and I pitch the way I'm supposed to, and if we play good defense, then we'll win," Ortiz said.

Sandy Martinez led off the eighth with a double, but was stranded at third when first baseman J.T. Snow snared Alex Gonzalez's line drive with two outs.

"He just beat us," Marlins manager John Boles said of Ortiz. "It's not a question of us getting the hits. He wins every two out of three times he takes the mound. He's good."

Ortiz improved to 2-0 against Florida and handled the Marlins lineup for the third straight outing. In 21 career innings against Florida, he has allowed 15 hits and six runs.

Ryan Dempster (0-1) pitched five innings and allowed three runs on five hits and five walks.

The 22-year-old right-hander walked four of the first nine hitters, but gave up just one run thanks to a double play and a couple of timely strikeouts. Marvin Benard scored on Jeff Kent's sacrifice fly in the first to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

"I was fortunate enough to get out with just one run," Dempster said. "All you can do is just fight and scratch and claw to keep the game in reach. Unfortunately, Ortiz had a pretty dominating game."

Dempster settled down and retired eight of the next nine, allowing a solo home run to Ellis Burks, his second in as many nights.

Burks hit Dempster's first pitch in the fourth inning into the upper deck in left field, an estimated 420-foot shot that landed right in the tunnel entrance.

"He never had a hole-in-one in golf, but he got one there," Baker said.

Dempster surrendered two singles and a walk to start the fifth, loading the bases for the third time, but again escaped with only one run. Benard scored on a sacrifice fly by Snow.

"He did a nice job at stopping the bleeding," Boles said. "It could have gotten ugly. He showed a lot of guts in my opinion. He could have folded, but he didn't."

Game notes
The Giants had lost four straight games at Florida, with their last win coming in August 1998. ... Though Florida won its fourth straight season opener, the club has not won consecutive games to start the season since its World Series championship season in 1997. ... The Giants have not lost two straight to start the season since 1996, when they dropped two at Atlanta. ... Florida's crowd was about 8,000 less than it averaged last season.