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Marlins go for series win in Atlanta

Apr 14, 2011 - 2:27 PM (Sports Network) - The Braves' offensive struggles nearly hit an epic nadir in last night's meeting. If the Marlins' Ricky Nolasco can maintain his pinpoint control again this evening, it could be another long night for Atlanta's bats.

Atlanta tries to avoid consecutive defeats to Florida at Turner Field in the finale of tonight's three-game series.

The Braves have been held to a pair of runs or less in six of their last nine games, hitting .209 in that span with an average of 2.4 runs per game. Last night's 5-1 loss represented a low point for the club as it was almost no-hit by Marlins' ace Josh Johnson.

Johnson took his bid into the eighth inning, but gave up a double to Freddie Freeman with one out in the eighth. He was then replaced by Ryan Webb due to a 109 pitch count and had to settle for his second win of the season thanks to a solo homer by Logan Morrison and three hits and two RBI by Chris Coghlan.

"The offense went out there and put some runs on the board," said Johnson, who struck out nine and also took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning of an Opening Day start versus the Mets. "I felt like I was effectively wild. It was a little tough at times but I made pitches when I needed to."

Florida snapped a two-game slide and improved to 3-2 on a nine-game road trip, while Atlanta lost for the sixth time in eight games and is 2-3 on its nine- game homestand.

Though Braves starter Tim Hudson finished strong, he was reached early by the Marlins and was charged with five runs over six innings in his first loss of the season.

"He was really good," Hudson said of Johnson. "It's kind of hard to spot him that many runs and expect our guys to put together good at-bats against him. We got in too big of a hole early against a guy like that."

Atlanta lost for just the second time in its last eight at home to Florida and hasn't dropped consecutive games at Turner Field to the Marlins in the same series since Sept. 29-30, 2009. The Braves went 11-7 versus the Fish overall last year, including 7-2 at home.

Nolasco will try to pitch the Marlins to a series win tonight and is 1-0 with a 2.40 earned run average through two starts so far. He has made opposing hitters work to beat him thus far as he has yet to walk a better in 15 innings of work.

The 28-year-old righty has allowed two runs in each of his first two starts and that was good enough to get a win last time out on Friday in Houston. Nolasco worked around eight hits over eight innings in the 4-3 win.

Nolasco, though, has struggled in his career versus the Braves. He is 4-6 with a 4.96 earned run average against them lifetime while going just 1-2 with a 7.62 ERA versus them last year. He allowed 11 runs and 21 hits in only 13 innings.

Nolasco has also been unable to handle Chipper Jones in his career. The Atlanta third baseman holds a lifetime average of .464 against the Marlins hurler with four homers and nine RBI.

Jones reached a milestone with his ninth-inning homer last night that supplied his 1,500th career RBI. He joined Hall of Famer Eddie Murray as the only switch hitters in MLB history with at least 2,500 hits and 1,500 RBI.

Right-hander Brandon Beachy makes his third start of the season and first of his career versus the Marlins.

The 24-year-old is 0-3 with a 3.33 ERA in his five career starts and pitched well in his season debut on April 4 in Milwaukee, with his only run allowed through six innings coming on a solo homer. However, he did not factor into the decision of a 2-1 win and was then tagged for four runs on seven hits over six innings of a 10-2 loss to the Phillies on Saturday.