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Marlins offense helps Willis end nine-game skid

Aug 15, 2007 - 4:45 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- The Florida Marlins provided their ace with some early support so he could easily end a long drought.

After serving up a leadoff home run to Chris Young, Dontrelle Willis settled down as the Florida Marlins cruised to a 14-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.

Willis (8-13) allowed three runs on 10 hits over seven innings to pick up his first win since May 29, when he beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-3. The lefthander struck out a season-high 11 batters in this one without surrendering a walk to end his career-high nine-game losing streak.

"Everybody needs to win, but I always persevered through everything with hard work," Willis said. "I was always confident out there. It wasn't anything different out there."

The Marlins ace escaped trouble in the second inning after the Diamondbacks loaded the bases with one out. Willis struck out pitcher Edgar Gonzalez and Young to end the threat.

"The game is all about momentum and they have a team that can put up some runs in a hurry, and they have been doing that as of late so to be able to shut them down and get our bats back is key," Willis said.

Young hit his second home run of the game, and 21st of the season, leading off the fifth inning. Willis allowed one more run in the sixth when Augie Ojeda grounded out, allowing Mark Reynolds to score after he led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on Chris Snyder's double.

Despite taking the early lead, it all fell apart for Arizona when the Marlins scored four times off Byung-Hyun Kim in the first inning. Kim (6-6), who was 3-1 over his last seven starts, allowed four runs - three earned - on four hits and a walk as he recorded just one out before being lifted in favor of Gonzalez.

Hanley Ramirez, who leads the National League with a .343 batting average, led off the inning with a double. Alejandro De Aza followed with a sacrifice which Kim fielded cleanly but threw away at first, allowing Ramirez to score and tie the game. Miguel Cabrera doubled to right field, plating De Aza, and scored when Josh Willingham singled up the middle.

After Mike Jacobs flied out, Willingham stole second, then third on Dan Uggla's walk. Matt Treanor capped off the scoring with a base hit, plating Willingham, and bouncing Kim from the game.

"We've done this game before," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "We'll get over it. It's ugly early, you never want to play a game like that but we've played a few of them before. We got past it and we moved on."

A bad situation got worse for the Diamondbacks in the second inning. After De Aza doubled to drive in Ramirez, who singled to lead off the inning, Cabrera hit a two-run home run, his 29th of the season, as the Marlins' lead bulged to five.

"Everybody swung the bats well," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "(Kim) is what he is and we got to him early."

Two batters later, Jacobs hit his ninth home run of the season, a solo blast, to give the Marlins an 8-1 lead.

"It was nice to put a couple good swings on the ball and to hit the homer as well," said Jacobs, who had three hits in the game.

The Marlins went quietly in the the third before putting up six more runs in the fourth, highlighted by Ramirez's third hit of the game, a two-run single with the bases loaded.

"We definitely have a force," Willis said. "It has been fun to play with these guys because they are electric and they are fun to watch."

After winning 17-of-20 games, Arizona lost back-to-back games for the first time since losing to the Milwaukee Brewers and the Cubs on July 19-20.