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De Aza's walk-off sacrifice fly lifts Marlins over Braves

Aug 29, 2007 - 3:47 AM By Paul Gereffi PA Sportsticker Contributing Writer

MIAMI (Ticker) -- It took 11 innings, but the Florida Marlins finally got a win.

Rookie Alejandro De Aza hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to lift the Marlins to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves in 11 innings on Tuesday.

It was just the second win for the Marlins in their last 14 games.

De Aza smacked a first-pitch offering from Oscar Villarreal (2-2) to deep right field, which was far enough to plate Alfredo Amezaga.

After Mike Jacobs flied out to start the frame, Amezega drew a walk before Jeremy Hermida crushed a high fly ball to left-center field for a double. Matt Treanor was issued an intentional walk to load the bases and set the stage for De Aza's heroics.

"It was a good win. We haven't had one of those in a long time," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "You'd like to just play nine, but right now, I'll take it any way."

Byung-Hyun Kim (7-6) picked up the win after pitching a scoreless 11th inning.

With the loss, the Braves (68-65) failed to gain ground in the playoff race. They remained six games behind the first-place New York Mets (73-58) in the National League East Division and are 4 1/2 games back of the wild card-leading San Diego Padres (71-59), who are hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Florida reliever Armando Benitez gave up a two-run home run to Chipper Jones in the eighth that tied the game at 3-3. Benitez walked leadoff hitter Kelly Johnson before Jones hit a 3-2 pitch over the left field scoreboard.

Marlins rookie starter Rick VandenHurk pitched five-plus innings, allowing one run and five hits with a career-high eight strikeouts. Florida's pitchers combined for 19 strikeouts.

"This is one of the stronger outings I've had this year," VandenHurk said. "I started attacking guys and keeping my stuff low in the zone. I executed the right pitch at the right time. I tried to keep them off-balance, and it was working."

Braves starter John Smoltz tossed six innings, giving up three runs and five hits with seven strikeouts. Smoltz pitched on just three days' rest for the first time this season after getting the win in a 7-2 victory Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

"This is as good as I've ever seen him pitch," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "He made one bad pitch, and that was to Hermida."

The Braves put runners on second and third with none out in the fifth, but VandenHurk pitched out of the jam with some defensive help from right fielder Hermida.

Both Smoltz and Willie Harris flied out to right, but strong throws to the plate by Hermida kept Andruw Jones at third. VandenHurk then struck out Johnson to get out of the inning.

VandenHurk got into another jam in the sixth after letting the first two batters reach base. He was relieved by Matt Lindstrom and again got help as, after Brian McCann flied to left, Lindstrom struck out Jeff Francoeur and Andruw Jones to end the threat.

"We can't find a way to win a baseball game," Smoltz said. "You make one mistake and it costs you. We had a lot of opportunities, but we didn't cash in."

Hermida gave the Marlins a 2-1 advantage in the second by blasting his 14th home run of the season to right.

"We've lost a lot of close games like this year," Hermida said. "This was big. It felt good to get a win out of this."

Florida stretched its lead to 3-1 in the third, when Jacobs' single plated Dan Uggla, who reached first safely when shortstop Yunel Escobar's throw pulled Mark Teixeira off the bag.

The Braves scored first on McCann's solo homer in the second inning, his 17th blast of the season.