Recap: Florida Marlins versus Washington Nationals
Marlin batters recognized the player on the mound they were facing Wednesday night. It was a former teammate, Scott Olsen, pitching for the Washington Nationals. They were more than happy to rough up their former teammate.
Olsen failed to make it out of the second inning as the Marlin offense hit him early and often.
Cody Ross started the scoring on the night with a single to shallow left that scored Logan Morrison. Mike Stanton was up next; his double knocked in Ross and second baseman Dan Uggla. Third baseman Donnie Murphy’s double rounded out a four-run first inning for the Marlins.
After giving up a home run to short stop Hanley Ramirez and a pair of RBI singles to Mike Stanton and Donnie Murphy, Olsen was pulled with one out left to go in the second inning.
Washington had trouble putting together much of consistent offensive attack scoring a single run in five different innings; the Marlins scored eight in the first three innings alone.
Another former Marlin was also playing for the Nationals; Josh Willingham hit for reliever Miguel Batista and got a double before being taken out for a pinch runner. Batista had taken over for Olsen in the second inning, and held the Marlin offense to two hits and one run, striking out four and walking two.
The game was a coming out party of sorts for young Mike Stanton. Since being called up about two months ago the 20-year old right-fielder had hit .239 with 31 RBIs and ten home runs in 184 at-bats. Against the Olsen and the rest of the Washington Nationals pitching staff he connected on all five at-bats for the first five-hit game of his career.
Stanton hit a solo home run in the seventh inning for his fourth RBI of the night.
Marlins starter Chris Volstad earned his sixth win of the season lasting five innings giving up nine hits and four earned runs while striking out two and walking one. It was also his third win against the Nationals this season. Volstad was much better in his previous two starts only giving up three earned runs over sixteen innings.
The win gave the Marlins a record of 56-56 and moved them into third place in the National League East, a half game in front of the New York Mets and nine games behind the division leading Atlanta Braves. Washington's record fell to 49-65.
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