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Ross lifts Marlins past Braves

Sep 3, 2008 - 9:29 PM By Christopher Stock PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MIAMI (Ticker) -- Cody Ross delivered the go-ahead run in the seventh inning with a single to center field as the Florida Marlins defeated the Atlanta Braves, 5-3, in front of a sparse crowd Wednesday afternoon.

Hanley Ramirez homered and doubled for the Marlins, who are last in the major leagues in attendance. There was an estimated crowd of 600 people at the time of first pitch -- far less than the announced attendance of 11,211.

"I got enough worries about 30 guys on the field," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said about the attendance. "It doesn't seem to bother our guys. They go out and play hard."

With the score tied at 3-3, Jeremy Hermida singled off Braves reliever Will Ohman (4-1) to start the seventh-inning rally.

Vladimir Nunez relieved Ohman and got Robert Andino to pop out, but Ramirez followed with a double to right and Nunez intentionally walked rookie John Baker to face Ross with the bases loaded.

"They have to (walk Baker) in that situation to try to get a double play," Ross said.

Ross singled on a 1-1 pitch to plate the go-ahead run, and Ramirez scored on a wild pitch, giving Florida a 5-3 lead.

"I didn't have the best game going at the time," Ross said. "I wanted to put a good at-bat together and try to hit the ball hard. Luckily it got through."

Doug Waechter (4-2) pitched a scoreless inning in relief and Andrew Miller pitched a scoreless eighth before turning it over to Joe Nelson, who registered his first save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth.

"Every day that I have ever been in the big leagues, I have been pretty excited," Nelson said. "I would get excited about the Triple-A saves I got. Every day I am up here, it is a blessing and I treat them all the same."

Marlins rookie Chris Volstad put together another quality start -- his seventh in 10 outings - by pitching six innings and allowing three runs. He kept the Marlins in the game despite allowing six hits and five walks.

"It was good," Volstad said of his outing. "The line reads kind of funny with so many walks, but I was able to work out of some jams."

Ramirez hit his 29th homer - a solo shot -- to deep center field in the third inning for a 1-0 lead. The 24-year-old All-Star shortstop is one homer away from reaching the 30-30 plateau; he has 31 stolen bases.

The Braves took a 3-1 advantage in the fourth when Kelly Johnson delivered a two-run triple to right-center and Jeff Francoeur followed with an RBI double.

In the bottom of the inning, Josh Willingham and Hermida each had two-out RBI singles for the Marlins to tie the game.

Braves starter Jorge Campillo pitched five innings and gave up three runs. He struck out seven while allowing four hits and three walks.

"I thought he threw great," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "He had a lot of strikeouts. Nothing really got hit hard, just the one home run by Ramirez."

Cox was ejected in the fifth inning by home plate umpire Mark Wegner for arguing a called strike during Martin Prado's at-bat. It was his major league-record 143rd ejection.