Luis Gonzalez made some personal history on a night the Marlins reached a new team benchmark.
Gonzalez's three-run double in the sixth inning helped provide a cushion the Marlins didn't relinquish. Ricky Nolasco allowed one run in six innings, and Florida prevailed, 7-3, on Friday night before a crowd of 23,379 at Nationals Park.
The Marlins have won a season-high five straight, and at 21-14, they are off to their best start ever over their first 35 games. Florida was last seven over .500 (80-73) on Sept. 22, 2005.
"I don't really pay attention to those kind of numbers, but I know we're playing good baseball right now," manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the fast start. "We're getting some good pitching, and we're getting some good hitting, and we'll come back out here tomorrow at [7:10 p.m.]."
Luis Gonzalez's three-run double in the sixth inning gave the 18-year veteran another piece of baseball history. It was his 574th career two-base hit, tying him for 18th all-time with Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer.
"The accomplishments are nice, but the best compliments you get are when I came into the dugout, and all my teammates are there to congratulate me," Gonzalez said. "I think as a ballplayer, that is what you look for, when they respect what you did on the field. To me, there is no better feeling than to do something like that, and know your teammates know what's going on, and they recognize you for that."
After the double, Gonzalez boosted his career RBI total to 1,401.
"It's a good feeling to come up in the clutch with a big hit like that, because you want to show your teammates that you're still capable of doing it on an everyday basis," the veteran outfielder said.
It was yet another all-around team effort in a place where the team is having early success. The Marlins have won all four meetings at Nationals Park, and they've beaten Washington in six of seven meetings.
Nolasco (2-3) held the Nationals hitless for 4 2/3 innings before Nick Johnson started a two-out rally with a single. After Lastings Milledge singled, Austin Kearns walked to load the bases. Nolasco had a seven-pitch showdown with Wily Mo Pena, who walked to drive in a run. Nolasco matched his season high for innings pitched, six, and he won for the first time since April 11 at Houston.
With his fastball clocked at 94 mph, the right-hander took strides forward after some rough patches of struggling to close out innings.
"Things went well," Nolasco said. "I tried to use my fastball, it felt good, and I threw my breaking ball for strikes. Mixing my changeups to the lefties. It was pretty good."
The roll the Marlins are on now reminds Nolasco a bit of his rookie 2006 season. In that season, where Florida used more than 20 rookies, the team rebounded from 20 games under .500 to actually post a winning record in early September.
"As starters, it's starting to rub off on everybody now," Nolasco said. "I know what that feeling is like. We had it in '06, and we are looking to keep feeding off each other."
Jorge Cantu added a key two-run single in the fourth inning off starter Tim Redding, making it 3-0. Jeremy Hermida walked to open the inning, and Hanley Ramirez's 100th career double put runners on second and third. Cantu singled sharply to right field, giving him three straight games with a pair of RBIs.
Before the road trip began, Cantu had deposited two-run homers in each of the past two games.
The Marlins manufactured an unearned run in the first inning. Cody Ross opened the game with a single to right. He moved to third on a stolen base, coupled with an errant throw by catcher Wil Nieves. Ramirez's sacrifice fly to left made it 1-0.
Cristian Guzman had an RBI double and Johnson added a run-scoring single off Doug Waechter in the seventh inning, making it a four-run game. Justin Miller quieted the threat by retiring Kearns on a fly ball to right. That essentially closed out any serious Washington chances of a comeback.
In order to keep the winning trend going, Nolasco says it is up to the starting pitchers to carry their share of the load.
"Early, we were hitting good, and we still are, and our bullpen is really good," Nolasco said. "Right now, this last week-and-a-half, we've done a good job feeding off each other, and we as starters we have to pick up the slack. The bullpen is good, and we're going to hit. So as starters, we've got to go out there and save our bullpen too.
"We're going to need them in August and September."
