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Johnson drives in four as Nationals down Marlins

Apr 19, 2008 - 3:42 AM By Christopher Stock PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MIAMI (Ticker) -- Nick Johnson drove in four runs and Tim Redding struck out a career-high 10 batters as the Washington Nationals defeated the Florida Marlins, 6-4, on Friday.

Johnson, who drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the first frame, stroked a game-changing, three-run double in the seventh off Marlins reliever Taylor Tankersley.

"We've been struggling with two outs and have been in that situation a lot, so it feels good to come through," Johnson said.

The Nationals had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh, but Ryan Zimmerman hit a soft grounder to third baseman Wes Helms, who barehanded the ball and threw home for a forceout.

Tankersley then relieved Justin Miller (1-1), and Johnson smacked a full-count offering to deep right field to give the Nationals a 6-4 advantage.

"Obviously, you feel a lot better after a win because you don't want this to get in the guys' minds," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "I can handle it, believe me. I've been doing this for a long time."

Redding (3-1) pitched six innings, giving up four runs and three hits with just one walk. Two relievers bridged the gap to Jon Rauch, who tossed a scoreless ninth to pick up his third save of the season.

"I was locating my fastball. I threw 58 fastballs - 40 for strikes," Redding said. "When you can control your fastball like that, it just makes all your secondary stuff better."

Felipe Lopez led off the game with a double off Marlins starter Andrew Miller, and Cristian Guzman and Zimmerman followed with back-to-back walks to load the bases. Johnson then hit a sacrifice fly, Lastings Milledge delivered a run-scoring single and Austin Kearns added an RBI groundout to give Washington an early 3-0 lead.

The Marlins fought back, however, cutting the deficit to 3-1 when Jeremy Hermida plated Hanley Ramirez with a double in the fourth inning.

Guzman was thrown out at home in the fifth on a double to right-center field by Zimmerman. Center fielder Alfredo Amezaga fielded the ball and made a quick toss to second baseman Dan Uggla, whose relay to catcher Mike Rabelo just got a sliding Guzman.

"Helms played great defense, also Hanley Ramirez. We played well," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "We played good defensive ball. We just didn't hit the ball."

The Marlins plated three more runs in the sixth to grab a 4-3 edge. Ramirez was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a base hit by Hermida before Josh Willingham's homer to left put Florida ahead.

It was Willingham's fourth blast of the season.

"Willingham is only looking to do one thing right there, and that's hit a home run," Redding said. "Regardless of how it got out, it went out nonetheless."

Miller allowed three runs and six hits in five innings. The 22-year-old lefthander walked two and struck out three.