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Pena, Schneider help Nationals get past Marlins

Sep 6, 2007 - 5:29 AM By Tim Hipps PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Wily Mo Pena and Brian Schneider delivered RBI singles in the seventh inning to give the Washington Nationals a 6-4 victory over the Florida Marlins, sweeping a series in a battle of National League East cellar dwellers on Wednesday night.

The victory was Washington's fifth in a row while Florida lost for the 17th time in 21 outings.

The Nationals (63-77) have now won seven straight vs. the Marlins (60-80) at RFK. Florida became the first team in the National League to lose 80 games.

Ryan Zimmerman started the winning rally with a single to center and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Marlins righthander Matt Lindstrom (2-4), Florida's fifth pitcher of the game. Austin Kearns followed with a one-out walk.

"No excuses," Lindstrom said. "I just needed to make a pitch on Church and I didn't do it. We were trying to go in on Wily Mo and I obviously didn't get it there. He's a good hitter, but maybe if I jam him, he grounds out."

Pena then delivered an RBI single to center that scored Zimmerman for a 5-4 lead. Lefthander Taylor Tankersley entered for the Marlins and promptly allowed Schneider's RBI single to right that scored Kearns to make it 6-4.

Luis Ayala (1-2), the fifth of seven pitchers used by the Nationals earned the win by recording a 1-2-3 seventh inning.

Jon Rauch struck out the side in the eighth before closer Chad Cordero worked around a two-out walk in the ninth to Hanley Ramirez to record his 31st save in 39 opportunities.

"In the ninth, we had runners at first and second and the guys at the plate, so that's a good sign," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "These guys battle and they give it their all, and we just always come up a little bit short."

Miguel Olivo crushed his 14th homer of the season off Nationals righthander Jesus Colome with Josh Willingham aboard to tie the score at 4-4 with two outs in the sixth inning.

Kearns' 13th homer gave the Nationals a 4-2 lead in the fifth. He went 3-for-4 and scored three runs.

"I don't look at it as, 'Let's stay out of last place,'" said Kearns, who went 3-for-4 and scored three runs. "We've got a month to go. Let's finish strong."

Nationals righthander Tim Redding left with one out in the third inning with a lateral elbow contusion. Redding attempted to field a hot comebacker off the bat of Marlins third baseman Miguel Cabrera. After initially deflecting the ball high into the air, Redding fell awkwardly on his right shoulder and arm while trying to pick the ball off the ground. He left the field clutching his right wrist.

X-rays of the wrist were negative. Redding, who allowed two runs on four hits over 2 1/3 innings, is expected to miss seven to 10 days.

Rookie righthander Jonathan Albaladejo made his major league debut by replacing Redding with the Nationals leading 3-1. Albaladejo worked 1 2/3 innings and struck out three.

Jeremy Hermida's ground-rule RBI double to center in the third scored Dan Uggla, who reached on a fielder's choice, for the Marlins' first run off Redding. Hermida eventually scored on a fielder's choice by Willingham that pulled the Marlins to 3-2.

The Marlins had runners on the corners with one out in the fifth, but Cabrera shattered his bat while bouncing into an inning-ending double play.

Washington made quick work of Marlins starter Sergio Mitre in the first.

In the bottom of the frame, the Nationals loaded the bases on singles by Felipe Lopez, Zimmerman and Kearns. Ryan Church followed with a broken-bat RBI single up the middle for a 1-0 lead.

After striking out Wily Mo Pena, Mitre walked Brian Schneider on four pitches and Robert Fick on six, to increase Washington's lead to three.

After Mitre threw two balls to Redding, Gonzalez replaced Mitre with righthander Daniel Barone, who induced Redding to ground out to end the inning.

Mitre threw just 16 of 33 pitches for strikes, while allowing three runs, four hits and two walks in two-thirds of an inning.

It was the 19th time a starting pitcher has failed to finish the first inning in a contest in 2007.

"It's just lack of command," Mitre concluded. "When it's off, it's off real bad. It's just snowballing, and it's coming down hard, so I'm going to make sure to stop it. You never want out of anything. You always want to work through something, whatever it might be."

The Marlins hitters, too, are feeling the heat.

"Yeah, it just kind of sucks all the way around," Dan Uggla said. "We're just not playing good baseball. I feel like I've never hit the ball in my life. It's just those stretches you go through and you've got to battle through - and hopefully it doesn't last as long as it's lasted."