MVN - Most Valuable Network

Marlins swat Nats, Olsen remains undefeated

Hanley Ramirez hit two homers and Scott Olsen pitched seven innings of one run ball as the Marlins trounced the Nationals 6-1 in the rubber match of a three game weekend series.

After opening this six game home stand with a shutout victory over Atlanta, Olsen closed it by holding Washington to just one run on three hits. He struck out three and walked two, improving to 3-0 on the year. Olsen had a no hitter going until Austin Kearns broke it up with a solo home run in the 5th. Four starts in to 2007, Olsen owned a 7.50 ERA in 17 IP. Tonight, he lowered his ERA to 2.60. He has been able to get deep into every game he’s pitched. The key to Olsen’s success has been a much quicker pace. Last year, he took plenty of time in between pitches, stalking around the mound. This year, he’s literally running back to the rubber. Five seconds. That’s all the time Olsen needs before throwing his next pitch.

Odalis Perez, another guy that likes to work quickly, was just as effective for the Nationals, silencing the Marlins’ bats through six innings. He allowed just five hits and an unearned run while striking out seven. But the troubled Washington bullpen wasted the outing, squandering five runs. Four of them were charged to Saul Rivera. Hanley Ramirez accounted for most of the damage. He homered in back-to-back innings. His first big fly, a solo shot off of Luis Ayala, sailed over the 434 marker in dead center field. His second would have been a grand slam if two runs hadn’t scored on a wild pitch a few offerings before. With the big night, Hanley extended his hitting streak to five games. He is hitting .350 over that span with five RBIs. The Marlins are now 11-1 when they score at least four runs.

Justin Miller struggled out of the pen for a second straight night, giving up a lead off double to Aaron Boone in the 8th. Boone would get to third on a sacrifice but Taylor Tankersley stranded him there, striking out Nick Johnson and Felipe Lopez. Kevin Gregg pitched a quiet 9th.

Following the 4-2 homestand, the Fish will hit the road for seven games. First stop: Pittsburgh. Mark Hendrickson will face off against Matt Morris for the second time this year in the first game of a short two game set on Monday night. The first time he met Morris on April 5th, Hendrickson earned the win, going 5.1 innings and only giving up one earned run. In his career against the Pirates, Hendrickson is 3-1 with a 3.97 ERA.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 7:58 pm 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.