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Snelling's hit in 14th lifts Nats over Marlins

Apr 21, 2007 - 6:35 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Chris Snelling continued the Washington Nationals' extra-inning magic.

Snelling drove in the go-ahead run on a hard one-hopper in the top of the 14th inning as the Nationals outlasted the Florida Marlins, 6-5.

It was the second extra-inning victory in the past three days for Washington, which overcame a late collapse by relievers Jon Rauch and Chad Cordero.

It was the fourth win in the last six games for the Nationals (6-11), who edged the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4, in 13 innings on Wednesday. "We didn't give up. That's been what this team's been all about lately," Snelling said. "Everybody's playing a part. We've won two tough (extra-inning) ones this week and it shows the character of this team."

In the 14th, Ryan Church hit a leadoff single and stole second against Lee Gardner (0-1). Three batters later, Snelling hit a hard grounder that first baseman Mike Jacobs could not avoid, hitting off him and settling into shallow right field.

"You don't go up there with any mindset other than to hit quality pitches," Snelling said. "I just happened to make contact and get it past Jacobs enough to give us a shot and Ryan did the rest."

Second baseman Dan Uggla retrieved the ball, but his bouncing throw to the plate could not be handled by catcher Miguel Olivo, allowing Church to score.

"I just wanted to make sure I got a good slide and got my hand across the plate," Church said. "This is a team of warriors all of a sudden. We're picking each other up and that's been key. It's been a case where we have the pitchers backs and the pitchers have our backs."

"These guys battled and we came back," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "You hate to lose a ballgame on a bad hop but that's the way the game is. That's the way the ball bounces sometimes, but they don't give up."

In the bottom half, Saul Rivera notched his first save since last August 25 by working around a one-out double by Jason Wood. Wood eventually moved to third on a passed ball by Schneider before Rivera struck out Borchard and Boone grounded out to shortstop.

"The bullpen got it done in the end," Washington manager Manny Acta said. "They did a tremendous job in the clutch. We have to learn how to put teams away, though. We have to show that we can hold on to leads and not have it fall apart on us."

Washington started strong in the contest, grabbing a 5-0 lead after Ronnie Belliard's three-run homer off Florida starter Scott Olsen in the fourth.

However, the Marlins rallied scoring two runs in both the sixth and eighth and the tying run in the ninth. Joe Borchard hit a two-run homer off Rauch in the eighth and pinch hitter Cody Ross drilled a 1-1 delivery from Cordero leading off the ninth.

In the 11th, Washington put runners on first and third with two outs after Brian Schneider was intentionally walked, but rookie righthander Henry Owens got D'Angelo Jimenez to fly out to center field to end the threat.

Florida's best opportunity in the extra innings came in the 13th, when Aaron Boone led off with a double, Ross worked a two-out walk and Hanley Ramirez was intentionally walked by Jesus Colome (2-0) to load the bases. The righthander then went to 3-2 against pinch hitter Matt Treanor before posting the strikeout on a high fastball. He pitched three scoreless innings.

"Jesus has finally learned that he doesn't have to throw 100 miles an hour to be effective," Acta said. "He did a tremendous job and really helped us out of tight spots.