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Buehrle helps Marlins snap 6-game skid

Jun 25, 2012 - 4:58 AM Miami, FL (Sports Network) - When the Marlins lured Mark Buehrle from Chicago, they envisioned his helping the team win its first division title in franchise history.

Instead, they'll have to settle for his halting of long losing streaks.

With the Marlins mired in another awful June and a six-game losing streak, Buehrle pitched seven shutout innings to help the Marlins salvage the last of their three-game series with the Blue Jays, 9-0.

After a 21-8 record in May, the Marlins entered Sunday's play with only four wins in 20 June games to drop into last place in the NL East. They managed their best offensive output of the month, however, after some help from home runs by John Buck and Greg Dobbs.

Buehrle (6-8) stopped a personal four-start losing streak with seven strikeouts while allowing seven hits, and the Marlins matched the five wins they posted last June, when the team lost 23 games during the worst month in team history.

"For the last two weeks I've been trying to be positive," Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said. "It's nice to see these guys having fun on the field. It's been awhile since we felt this way after a game."

The Marlins had gone 25 games without scoring more than five runs in a game, the longest stretch in franchise history. It's the first time since May 25 they've had an offensive result such as this.

Colby Rasmus had a pair of hits for the Blue Jays, who had won six of their previous eight games. Jesse Chavez (0-1) was doomed by a couple bad innings, yielding six runs and seven hits in six frames.

The Marlins struck quickly in the second, giving Buehrle all he needed to go into cruise control.

Dobbs began the inning with a slap single the opposite way into left, and Omar Infante pulled a double to left, sending Dobbs to third. Scott Cousins followed with another single, scoring Dobbs easily with the first run.

Buck made it 4-0 with a blast to center that landed somewhere in the home run celebration device built in the new Marlins Park.

Jose Bautista had a chance to pull Toronto closer in the third with two runners on and two outs, but he flied out. Giancarlo Stanton preserved Miami's shutout in the fifth by throwing Brett Lawrie out at home to end the inning.

Other than that, the Blue Jays never put together an extended threat. The Marlins turned the game into a rout on Dobbs' two-run blast in the sixth, and Hanley Ramirez added a two-run triple in the seventh before scoring on Logan Morrison's sacrifice fly.

Game Notes

Buehrle had allowed at least one earned run in each of his first 14 starts with the Marlins...Dobbs finished with three hits, and the home run was his first of the season...Miami leads the all-time series with Toronto, 18-6.