Washington Nationals defeat Florida Marlins 8-4 to avoid series sweep - MLB Update
The Washington Nationals’ batters hammered Florida Marlins, 8-4 at the Nationals Park, on Sunday, May 15 to avoid series sweep.
Laynce Nix started the game with an RBI single off Marlins’ starter Javier Vazquez in the bottom of the first. Ivan Rodriguez then followed the path set by Nix and scored RBI double while Jerry Hairston added another RBI single. Jason Marquis aggravated
Vazquez’s night adding an RBI double to take the Nationals to a 6-0 lead.
Marlins’ Mike Stanton hit a sacrifice fly to earn the first run for his club and then Brett Hayes touched a second run in the second inning. In the fifth inning, Ivan Rodriguez scored another RBI single to elevate the lead 7-2.
After allowing two early runs, the Nationals’ starter, Marquis came back quickly and held the Nationals scoreless in his next four innings until the seventh when he allowed two more runs. The Marlins’ Greg Dobbs and Chris Coghlan scored an RBI single each
to reduce the lead to 4-7.
Roger Bernadina hit another RBI single for the Nationals in the eighth inning to cement the Nationals nineteenth triumph in the season.
Despite allowing four runs on six hits, walking one and taking out two batters, Marquis received his fifth win of the season.
"It can help you win ballgames. It can help make two-run games, four-run games and make it a little easier," Marquis said. "It's not the most important part of the game, but when I'm standing in the box, it's the most important part."
The Nationals manager Jim Riggleman gave the credit to the batters, who scored in the very first inning of the game.
Riggleman said, "Getting runs early was big. That's been a bit of an issue for us," manager Jim Riggleman said.
Vazquez, who tossed the worst first inning, struck back in his later three innings, not allowing a run and made four strike-outs, received a full support from the manager Edwin Rodriguez.
Regarding his first inning, Rodriguez said, "It was a very rough first inning for Javy and that changed the whole strategy and it put us in a hole right away.”
Vazquez has an important place in the Marlins’ line-up, but things have gone wrong in this season having a 7.55 ERA. The veteran ball thrower has 154 wins in his 14 year career.
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