Miami, FL – Giancarlo Stanton went 2-for-3 with a solo home run and two RBI as the Miami Marlins completed a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals with a 5-3 victory.
Chris Coghlan, John Buck and starter Josh Johnson added an RBI apiece and Hanley Ramirez contributed three hits for the Marlins, who have won five of their last six games and went 21-8 in May.
Johnson (3-3) allowed three runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out five over six innings to pick up the victory. Heath Bell worked around a leadoff double in the ninth to earn his 10th save of the season.
Roger Bernadina went 1-for-2 with a pair of RBI and Danny Espinosa added an RBI base hit for the Nats, who find themselves just a half-game ahead of the Marlins for first place in the NL East.
Chien-Ming Wang (1-1) allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks with four strikeouts in four-plus innings to absorb the loss.
With the game tied at three, Miami took the lead for good in the fifth. Ramirez began the inning with a double, Stanton was hit by a pitch and Bryan Petersen walked two batters later to load the bags with one out. Facing Ross Detwiler, Buck sent a sharp grounder into the hole which was stopped on a dive by Ryan Zimmerman. He got up and fired to second for the force-out, but threw high and wide, which allowed Ramirez to score the go-ahead run to make it 4-3.
Stanton gave the Marlins some insurance in the seventh when he got out in front of a breaking ball from Washington reliever Ryan Perry and yanked it deep and into the seats in left field for a 5-3 game.
Bell allowed a double to Adam LaRoche and walked Bernadina later in the inning to put runners on the corners with two outs, but he fanned pinch-hitter Rick Ankiel to end the game.
Earlier, the Marlins jumped on top with a run in their first at-bat. Omar Infante laced ball off the glove of Bernadina in right for a double, moved to third on a ground out by Ramirez and scored on a base hit into left by Stanton.
Washington answered right back with a run in the second inning when Espinosa cranked a triple to deep center field and scored on a sacrifice fly by Bernadina to tie the game.
The Nats took the lead with a pair of runs in the fourth. LaRoche led off the inning with a double into the right field corner and advanced to third on a ground out by Ian Desmond before scoring on a base hit by Espinosa. Bernadina followed with a double to bring home Espinosa and extend the lead to 3-1.
But Miami responded with two runs in their half of the fourth to tie the game at three. Wang issued back-to-back walks to Logan Morrison and Petersen and both runners moved up on a ground out by Buck. Morrison trotted home on a sac fly by Coghlan, and Johnson helped his own cause with an RBI single into left.
Game Notes
Miami completed its first three-game sweep over the Nationals at home since June 29-July 1, 2009...Marlins shortstop Jose Reyes extended his hitting streak at home to 10 games...Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper (0-for-4) had his career-best nine-game hitting streak snapped...Stanton tied a Marlins franchise record for RBI in May with 30. Miguel Cabrera also had 30 in 2006...Bell recorded a save in all three games of the series...It was Stanton's 13th homer of the season.
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