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Olsen dazzles as Fish crush Nats

Mike Jacobs homered twice and Scott Olsen tossed 7.2 innings of 4 hit, 3 run ball as the Marlins decisively defeated the Washington Nationals, 10-4.

In 2006, we saw the good Olsen. In 2007, we saw the evil, drunk, tazed and confused Olsen. If his first two starts this year are any indication, the Olsen who once went 12-10 and had a 166:75 K:BB in 180.2 innings has returned. Only one of his three earned runs tonight was given up by Olsen himself. The others were squandered by Lee Gardner, who has been the only sore spot in the Florida bullpen, after he came on in relief with two men on and two men out in the 8th. Thanks to Olsen’s 120 pitch outing, Gardner was the only pen pitcher that had to throw tonight. Burke Badenhop made good of his major league debut, throwing a scoreless 9th. He will step into the rotation on Sunday in Houston.

Speaking of good starts, how about that Jacobs guy? 4 homers and 9 RBIs in his first 32 at-bats. However, it seems as though it’s the fences or bust for the 27-year-old. While he may have superhuman strength, he’s only hitting .212 and has yet to record an extra base hit. It’d put my mind at ease to see him find a gap or two.

Jorge Cantu homered as well. Since the Marlins acquired Wes Helms, Cantu is hitting .385 and he’s only struck out once.

In his first game back from the DL, Jeremy Hermida smacked two doubles and had two RBIs.

The Marlins’ inaugural series in the brand new Nationals Park wraps up tomorrow night. Mark Hendrickson will face off against Odalis Perez. In 39 career innings against the Fish, Perez owns a 4.15 ERA.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 12:05 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.