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Slumping Marlins open set with Diamondbacks

Jun 10, 2011 - 2:53 PM (Sports Network) - The Florida Marlins are still winless both in June and on their 11-game homestand and hope to get off the schneid tonight in the opener of a four-game series versus the Arizona Diamondbacks at Sun Life Stadium.

The Marlins have dropped eight in a row this month and fell to 0-7 on the residency after back-to-back sweeps at the hands of Milwaukee and Atlanta. In Thursday's 3-2 loss to the NL East-rival Braves in the finale of a three-game series, Mike Stanton homered and Emilio Bonifacio ended with two hits and an RBI for the Marlins, who have just one win in their last 11 games.

Florida starter Chris Volstad was saddled with the loss for allowing three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked a pair of batters to fall to 2-6 on the season.

"We're playing good baseball. They're one-run games. We're right there, we just have to keep plugging away," Volstad said.

The Marlins are riding their longest losing streak since dropping eight in a row from Aug. 15-22, 2007. Their longest skid is 11 games set twice during the 1998 campaign.

Anibal Sanchez will try to pitch his team back into the win column when he makes his 13th start of the season tonight. Sanchez is 5-0 with a 2.37 ERA in his last 10 starts and did not perform well in a no-decision versus Milwaukee on Sunday, as he was reached for five runs in five innings of a 6-5 loss. Sanchez raised his ERA to 2.97 and remained at 2-0 in six home starts in 2011.

The right-hander defeated Arizona on May 31 in the desert with eight innings of two-run ball and eight strikeouts in a 5-2 victory and is 2-1 with a 3.62 ERA in four career starts in this series. Sanchez tossed a no-hitter against the Diamondbacks on Sept. 6, 2006.

Arizona is one game behind San Francisco for the top spot in the National League West standings and ended a three-game slide with Thursday's 2-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the finale of a three-game series at PNC Park.

Chris Young's two-run homer in the eighth inning accounted for all of the scoring, while he was one of three players to finish with two hits. Justin Upton and Miguel Montero also chipped in two hits apiece for Arizona, which got five shutout innings from starter Josh Collmenter in the no-decision.

"It was a 2-0 count and I thought he was going to throw the heater," Young said of his home run against Pirates hurler Chris Resop. "His fastball is electric and he ended up leaving it in a good spot for me."

Micah Owings threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief for the win and David Hernandez closed the door in the ninth for his second save.

Joe Saunders will handle starting pitching duties for the D'Backs tonight and he's 3-5 with a 4.32 ERA in 12 starts this season. Saunders has won three straight starts and is unbeaten in four trips to the hill. He is coming off seven shutout innings in a 2-0 win over Washington last Saturday and has lasted at least six innings in each of his last seven starts.

Saunders, who started the season 0-5 in his first nine starts, defeated Florida in a 15-4 drubbing on May 30 at Chase Field and surrendered four runs through the first six innings for the win. It was his only appearance against the Marlins.

Arizona, which won 15 of 17 games from May 14-30, took two of three meetings with the Marlins from May 30-June 1 and has won three of the previous five matchups between the two clubs.