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Willingham hits walk-off homer as Marlins edge Nationals

Jul 1, 2008 - 3:46 AM By Christopher Stock PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MIAMI (Ticker) -- Josh Willingham hit a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Florida Marlins recorded their second walk-off victory in as many games with a 6-5 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday.

Willingham hit a first-pitch offering off Nationals closer Jon Rauch (4-2) to lead off the 10th and sent it over the left field wall for his second homer of the game. Willingham, who had missed two months with a lower back strain, had not homered since April 24.

"It's unbelievable," said Willingham after his third career walk-off homer. "I wasn't at all trying to hit a homer. I was just trying to hit it hard, he just threw me a good pitch to hit. I didn't know it was gone, I was just trying to get to second."

Hanley Ramirez hit a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth with one out to tie the game for the second straight game. Ramirez connected on a 2-2 pitch from Rauch to deep left-center field for his 19th blast of the season.

"It's not something you see every day," Ramirez said. "So when you got a chance you have to try to do it."

"If those pitches are where they needed to be, then obviously we aren't in this situation right now," Rauch said. "One of the things about my job is if I make mistakes, generally it costs us ballgames, and that's what happened."

Kevin Gregg (6-2) pitched a scoreless 10th to earn the victory as the Marlins improved to 9-1 against the Nationals this season.

"So far these guys have our number," Washington manager Manny Acta said. "We have not been able to keep them in the ballpark, that's been the story for two years. They just bomb away and they seem to it against us constantly."

The Nationals took the lead in the eighth inning on a wild pitch by Renyel Pinto, allowing Ronnie Belliard to score from third base.

Willingham, who has eight home runs on the campaign, hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning to give the Marlins a 3-1 advantage.

"I've never been able to explain home runs," Willingham said. "I think it all has to do with timing and I got some good pitches to hit that happened to go out. It felt really good to hit one because it had been a really long time."

The Nationals pulled to 3-2 on an RBI single by Willie Harris in the fourth inning.

Elijah Dukes tied the game with a solo blast in the fifth and, two batters later, Dimitri Young gave the Nationals a 4-3 lead with another solo shot. It was the fourth home run of the season for both players.

Florida's Ryan Tucker and Washington's Tim Redding both allowed four runs with six strikeouts over five innings.