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Marlins continue series with Indians

May 19, 2012 - 3:00 PM (Sports Network) - After winning a tight contest in the first game of this series, the Miami Marlins will try to capture another win on the road in the continuation of a three-game interleague series against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.

The Marlins got another strong outing from Carlos Zambrano, who earned a win in the first game of the series last night. Zambrano pitched seven innings and allowed two runs on four hits while striking out a pair.

It would take a sacrifice fly from Hanley Ramirez in the eighth inning to break a tie that gave the Marlins the 3-2 victory.

Ramirez also hit a double in the game while Omar Infante and Greg Dobbs each added an RBI in the winning effort. Miami has now won three of its last four games and with the win is now in a tie for third place in the NL East with the New York Mets.

In another positive for the Marlins, closer Heath Bell recorded his fourth save of the season, pitching a perfect ninth inning.

The Indians scored both of their runs in the second inning on an RBI double from Casey Kotchman, who then came in to score two batters later on an RBI single from Shin-Soo Choo. Overall the Indians offense struggled, collecting only four hits in the game.

Cleveland had won four straight games before the loss and now holds a three- game lead over the Detroit Tigers for first place in the AL Central.

On the hill for Cleveland in Saturday's matchup will be Jeanmar Gomez. A spot starter for the first two years of his career, Gomez has been a surprisingly steady pitcher in the early 2012 season. Gomez enters his seventh start of the season with a record of 2-2 and an ERA of 3.75, which is second among Cleveland starters.

The right-hander will want to build off the success of his last start in which he pitched seven innings and allowed just one unearned run in a win over Minnesota.

Unfortunately for Gomez his effort didn't earn him a win as the Indians needed a run in the top of the ninth inning to earn the 5-4 victory.

"I feel bad for him. I'm glad we were able to come back, but he should have gotten a win out of that," said manager Manny Acta.

Gomez was suspended earlier this season after hitting Kansas City's Mike Moustakas with a pitch in a game in which both benches cleared.

Taking the hill for the Marlins will be Anibal Sanchez, who looks to have recaptured the success of his rookie campaign when he went 10-3 with a 2.83 ERA and also tossed a no-hitter.

Sanchez is 2-1 on the season and is currently tied for the 11th best ERA among starters in the National League entering his eighth start of the season.

Since his first season in the majors Sanchez has had 10 or more wins only once and has never had an ERA below 3.55. In the past two years he has put together a more steady resume, making 32 starts in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career.

After starting off the season with six straight quality starts Sanchez hit a bump in his last time out versus Pittsburgh, but still managed to put together a strong outing. Sanchez allowed three runs over seven innings in the fifth straight game he has gone that deep in a game.

Unfortunately the effort ended up in a loss for Sanchez as the Marlins again failed to get enough runs to support the right-hander. On the season the Marlins score only 3.28 runs per game in games in which Sanchez pitches, including just four runs combined over the last two starts.

Miami is 5-2 in this series history as the road team and has also owns the series lead overall with 13 wins in 19 total meetings.