Marlins Within Two of First

The Marlins closed the gap to 2 games in the National League East with a 8-3 win over the Mariners on Wednesday.  The win gave the Marlins a series win in their first ever visit to Seattle and ended a string of 20 games in 20 days.   With the win, the fish are now 39-33 and have won three of their last four games.

Ryan Tucker made the start tossing six strong innings in which he allowed only two earned runs earning a quality start and his 2nd big league win in three career starts.   The rookie struck out 4 and walked 2 while showing more control than his previous 2 starts with the Marlins.   Joe Nelson threw 1 scoreless inning of relief.   Renyel Pinto allowed one earned run in two thirds of an inning.   Justin Miller finished the 8th throwing one third of an inning and surrendering one hit.   Kevin Gregg pitched the 9th in a non save situation to get work in and threw a scoreless inning of his own.

The Marlins offense struck early and continued adding on throughout the game.    There were 2 home runs hit, one by Dan Uggla who hit a longball in two consecutive games to give him 21 for the season.    Mike Jacobs hit the other blast, his 17th of the year.   There were three multi-hit games on this day for the fish and the players to accomplish them were Jacobs, Hanley Ramirez and Jorge Cantu who each had 2 hits.

On Thursday, the Marlins are off.   The season continues on Friday as the fish visit Oakland to take on the Athletics.   Scheduled pitchers are Mark Hendrickson for the Marlins and Rich Harden for the Athletics.