An eventful homestand finally over, the Nats (56-75) start a six-game road trip tonight in Florida against the Marlins (65-64). They then have a weekend series in Pittsburg before returning home for a Labor Day matinee against the Mets. The Nats took three of four games from the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend.
Jason Marquis gets the start for Washington. He is 0-7 with an 8.79 ERA. But throw out the numbers. They don’t matter anymore in a year where Marquis underwent elbow surgery and missed over three months. But he’s under contract for next season and – without Stephen Strasburg for most of 2011 – Marquis would be a useful veteran to fill out the rotation. He struggled his first two starts back from the disabled list. But Marquis allowed one run in five innings vs. Philadelphia and pitched 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball against the Cubs last Wednesday. He walked a combined seven batters in those games so things weren’t perfect. But it’s a good sign as the Nats head down the stretch.
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Jordan Zimmermann (0-0, 11.25 ERA) and Scott Olsen (3-7, 4.91 ERA) are the other starters in this series. Alex Sanabia (3-1, 3.62 ERA) goes for the Marlins. The 21-year-old has won both of his starts since a recall from Triple-A New Orleans with three earned runs allowed in 14 innings. Anibal Sanchez (11-8, 3.29 ERA) and Chris Volstad (8-9, 4.61 ERA) are the other starters for Florida.
The Marlins actually remain on the fringe of the playoff race in the National League. They enter play Monday 7 ½ games behind Philadelphia for the wild-card spot. They have won eight of 12 games, but have been absurdly streaky in August. Florida began the month with a five-game losing streak, won four in a row, including a sweep of Washington at Nationals Park, lost four in a row and then began a five-game winning streak. They lost a pair last week and then won three more in a row. But the Marlins dropped two tough ones to the first-place Braves on Saturday and Sunday – the latter an epic meltdown where they blew a 6-1 lead in the eighth inning at Turner Field in a 7-6 loss. Here are tonight’s lineups:
Nationals:
Kennedy – 2B
Gonzalez – SS
Bernadina – LF
Zimmerman – 3B
Dunn – 1B
Morse – RF
Rodriguez – C
Morgan – CF
Marquis – SP
Marlins:
Maybin – CF
Morrisonn – LF
Ramirez – SS
Uggla – 2B
Sanchez – 1B
Tracy – 3B
Stanton – RF
Hayes – C
Sanabia – SP
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