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Cabrera, Marlins hammer Phillies

Apr 29, 2007 - 5:53 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- When Miguel Cabrera sees Adam Eaton on the mound, his eyes light up.

Cabrera had a career-high five hits, including a homer, and Dan Uggla and Josh Willingham each homered as the Florida Marlins posted an 11-5 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Hanley Ramirez and Joe Borchard each had two hits and Willingham added three for Florida, which pounded out 17 as every regular except Miguel Olivo had at least one hit.

Cabrera had three hits off Eaton and is 10-for-13 with two homers in his career vs. the righthander. The three-time All-Star, in just his fifth season, is batting .364.

"I don't worry about the numbers in the past," Cabrera said. "I worry about what I'm gonna do today. It was a good day. I do the same thing I do every day."

"Maybe I should keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, to be honest with you," Eaton said of Cabrera's success against him. "That's about it."

The beneficiary of the offensive eruption was Florida starter Dontrelle Willis (5-1), who had an interesting week. He allowed five runs - four earned - and nine hits to become the National League's first five-game winner and improved to 3-2 against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

The Marlins bounced back after suffering a 6-5 loss Friday in which they had a two-run lead late before blowing the game.

"It's a tough place to be successful at for any team, especially (after) a tough defeat last night," Willis said. "We responded today and got it done. It was a shootout game and we got ourselves a well-needed victory."

Willis enjoyed the birth of his first child - a baby girl - on Tuesday morning. On Monday, he helped beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-7, after spending all day with his wife, Natalee, who gave birth to a 6-pound, 6-ounce girl on Tuesday.

Ramirez led off the first inning with a double, Uggla walked and Cabrera singled to load the bases before RBI groundouts by Mike Jacobs and Olivo wrapped around a run-scoring single by Borchard gave Florida an early 3-0 lead.

"Eaton was having problems early keeping the ball in the strike zone," Uggla said. "We were lucky enough to take advantage of it and get some guys on base and get a couple of runs that first inning. We wanted to give Dontrelle a little breathing room."

Leading, 3-1, in the second, Eaton walked Willis to begin the frame. One out later, Uggla crushed a 3-1 pitch into the second tier of the left field seats to put the Marlins up, 5-1. Cabrera stroked a single one batter later, but Eaton escaped the inning by getting an inning-ending double play.

"Anytime (Cabrera's) on like that, we're gonna be tough to beat," Uggla added. "We see him just oozing confidence and hitting balls hard everywhere and fighting off stuff. Miguel was just having some great at-bats and it definitely got us excited and pumped up. We wanted to help him out and drive in runs too."

Philadelphia tried to get back into the game over the next two innings with a solo homer by Rod Barajas in the second and a run-scoring single by Chase Utley in the third to cut their deficit to 5-3. It was the first homer of the season for Barajas, who is now 3-for-6 lifetime vs. Willis, including two homers and a double.

However, the Marlins blew the game open in the the fifth and sixth frames. In the fifth, a run-scoring double by Borchard ended the night for Eaton and an RBI single by Alfredo Amezaga off Francisco Rosario provided a 7-3 edge.

Eaton (2-2) was tagged for seven runs, 10 hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings.

"Frustrating, to say the least, from the first till the fifth inning," Eaton said. "Definitely not a very good game for me."

After a sacrifice fly by Utley in the bottom of the frame cut the Marlins' lead to three, Cabrera and Jacobs hit two-out singles before Willingham belted his third homer of the season over the left field wall to increase Florida's lead to 10-4.

"We were getting one run, they were getting two and three," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.

Cabrera's fifth hit was an opposite-field home run over the right-center field wall to lead off the eight inning off reliever Fabio Castro. It was the 10th time a Marlins player has had five hits in a ballgame, the last being Uggla vs. the New York Mets on September 11, 2006.

"(Cabrera's) half-man, half-amazing," Willis said. "He can do it all. He can carry this team right into the postseason, so I tell him all the time, 'If we don't get in, it's because of you.'"

Rollins, Barajas and Abraham Nunez each had two hits and Utley drove in two for Philadelphia, which has seen its pitchers hammered for 32 hits over the past two games.

Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez had little to say, asking that the media talk to the players.

"Those guys played a great game out there and Dontrelle pitched great," Gonzalez said. "I suggest you go over there and talk to those guys. Those guys deserve the attention. See you guys later."