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Marlins aim to continue amazing start

May 10, 2008 - 2:26 PM Florida (21-14) at Washington (15-21) 7:10 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The offseason trade of Miguel Cabrera to Detroit was supposed to make the Florida Marlins a cellar dweller. Instead, they are the ones looking down at the rest of the National League East.

The Marlins pursue their sixth straight win on Saturday when they meet the Washington Nationals in the second of three games at Nationals Park.

Florida sent Cabrera - one of the best hitters in franchise history - along with lefthander Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers for prospects in an eight-player deal in December, allowing many detractors to suggest that the Marlins could be one of the worst teams in baseball history.

Instead, the team is off to its best 35-game start in franchise history.

Florida collected its fifth straight win in Friday's series opener, 7-3. It is the team's best run since winning nine straight from August 20-29, 2006. The Marlins are in first place in the NL East and seven games above .500 for the first time since September 2005.

One of the centerpieces of the Cabrera deal, Andrew Miller (2-2, 7.96 ERA), will be hoping to build on his strongest outing of the season. The lefthander allowed just two runs and four hits in six innings, walking two while striking out four, in Sunday's 10-3 victory over San Diego.

He will be opposed by Michael O'Connor (1-0, 6.35), who will be making his first start of the season. The lefthander tossed one scoreless inning of relief but did not factor into the decision during Wednesday's 4-3 loss to the Houston Astros.