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Nationals-Marlins Preview

Sep 12, 2009 - 3:55 AM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Washington (48-92) at Florida (75-65), 6:10 p.m. EDT

The Florida Marlins have lost twice in their last nine games - both to the last-place Washington Nationals.

Trying to remain in the postseason hunt, the Marlins look to bounce back from their first home loss to the Nationals in over a year on Saturday night.

Coming off a three-game road sweep of the New York Mets, Florida (75-66) returned home and lost 5-3 to Washington on Friday.

The Nationals (49-92), owners of the worst record in the major leagues, snapped a 10-game losing streak at Florida dating to July 1, 2008.

Florida, whose previous loss came 5-4 at Washington on Sunday, are six games behind first-place Philadelphia in the NL East. The Marlins, who are 11-5 against the Nationals this season, still have six contests remaining against the Phillies.

"All we can concentrate on is winning as many games as we can; we can't control anything else," second baseman Dan Uggla told the Marlins' official Web site.

Uggla and Hanley Ramirez homered for the Marlins, who went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position, one night after pounding out 16 hits and going 7 for 19 with runners in scoring position in a 13-4 win over the Mets.

"All night we had some people on base with the right guys at the plate," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "(The Nationals) made some pitches."

Uggla has 28 home runs and has gone deep in three straight games. He has three against the Nationals this season. Ramirez, meanwhile, is hitting an NL-leading .360 and has four home runs and 10 RBIs in his last six contests.

Adam Dunn and Ryan Zimmerman homered for the Nationals, who've won two in a row. It was the 29th homer for the All-Star Zimmerman and the first hit in his last 13 at-bats.

After homering for a second straight game, Dunn has hit five of his 37 home runs and has 14 RBIs against Florida this season. The Nationals slugger, however, is 1 for 8 with four strikeouts against Marlins' scheduled starter Anibal Sanchez.

Sanchez (2-6, 4.47 ERA) looks to remain perfect against the Nationals while facing them for the second time in seven games.

The right-hander, who's 3-0 with a 2.77 ERA in eight starts versus the Nationals, allowed four hits over six shutout innings before the Marlins blew a pair of leads in the loss at Washington on Sunday.

Sanchez is 0-2 with a 3.07 ERA in his last three starts.

After making 11 appearances for the Nationals last season, Marco Estrada makes his first career start in this contest.

The right-hander, who was recalled from the minors on Tuesday, has no record a 7.82 ERA in his career. Estrada allowed two hits in 1 1-3 scoreless innings against the Marlins last season.