Nats 9, Marlins 3
Make it four of five for the suddenly hot Nats, who waited out a 3-hour, 10 minute rain delay in South Florida before pummeling the Marlins. Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn both cracked three-run homers and starting pitcher Jason Marquis got his first win of the season.
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Zimmerman now has a slash line of .301/.387/.529/.916 with 25 homers and 76 RBI. One of the two outs he made came on a ball smashed right at Florida third baseman Chad Tracy. He also smashed some scoreboard lights with his third-inning home run – a bomb that smacked off the facing of the upper deck. The “M” in a lit “Sun Life Stadium” sign was knocked out.
“No, no, no. That’s what they get for making us play this late,” he told MASN’s Debbie Taylor.
Dunn is at .265/.358/.556/.913 with 33 homers and 88 RBI. As streaky as he is the big man still has a shot at getting back to that 40-homer mark he just missed last season.
Marquis pitched pretty well for Washington (57-75). He gave up a first-inning homer to Hanley Ramirez and walked three batters. But two double-play balls helped him escape some jams. Marquis went 5 2/3 innings – he had two outs in the sixth before giving up a double to No. 7 batter Cameron Maybin and a two-run homer to No. 8 batter Brett Hayes. Florida (65-65) posted seven hits off Marquis and three runs and he had just one strikeout so he wasn’t exactly fooling anybody. But at the very least it’s three straight quality outings from Marquis and – more important – his first win of the season after an 0-7 start with more than three months on the disabled list to boot. That ERA is now down to 8.13.
Give credit, too, to Joel Peralta, who’s been a revelation in the bullpen. He pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 2.41. Yes, his batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is an unsustainable .211. But he’s also walked just seven batters in 37 1/3 innings and has 35 strikeouts. His WHIP is a sweet 0.87, too. Tyler Clippard pitched a scoreless eighth inning with three strikeouts of his own. And Craig Stammen finished off the night with three strikeouts in the ninth. So the trio combined for nine strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.
Michael Morse has been red hot lately as he fights for a spot on next year’s roster. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla. native – not sure, but the crowd tonight may have consisted entirely of the Morse family – crushed a double off Marlins starter Alex Sanabia (3-2, 3.98 ERA). He also saw his 400-plus foot drive to center die in the glove of Maybin at the wall. That was a homer at Nationals Park. Morse is at .301/.341/.543/.884 in 173 at-bats this season. He’ll have the final five weeks of the season to build on those numbers with a better sample size. Morse has eight doubles, two triples and 10 homers overall.
Meanwhile, Roger Bernadina is in the same position as Morse. Batting third again he went 2-for-4 with a triple, a stolen base and three runs scored. His slash line is now .274/.330/.438/.769 with 16 doubles, three triples and 10 homers. He’s also been successful on 13 of 15 stolen-base attempts.
Nats Notes
» Washington general manager Mike Rizzo announced his organization’s Arizona Fall League roster. No Bryce Harper. We’ll have to wait until next year to see the 17-year-old phenom against opposing minor leaguers. But catcher Derek Norris, left-handed pitcher Sammy Solis – a 2010 draft pick – outfielder Michael Burgess, second baseman Stephen Lombardozzi and right-handed relievers Adam Carr and Cole Kimball.
» The Nats have scored 40 runs in their last five games.
» Florida committed two errors, got a scoring break on another possible misplay and threw four wild pitches.
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