Marlins take aim on first-place Nats

    WASHINGTON -- As hinted by Ozzie Guillen, Logan Morrison and Omar Infante aren't in the starting lineup for tonight's series opener against the Nationals. Austin Kearns will be in left for Miami while Donnie Murphy returns to second base in Infante's absence.

     The Marlins will be shooting for their first five-game winning streak since the end of July last season. Meanwhile, the Nationals (10-4) are off to their best start since moving from Montreal to D.C. in 2005. The last time a team from D.C. posted 10 wins in its first 14 games was 1951 when the A.L. Nationals jumped out to a 10-4 start.

      Tough pitching matchups for the Marlins in this series, as they'll see Stephen Strasburg (2-0, 1.42) tomorrow afternoon and Gio Gonzalez (1-0, 2.04) in the Sunday matinee.

      LINEUPS:

      Marlins: 1. Reyes, ss; 2. Bonifacio, cf; 3. Ramirez, 3b; 4. Stanton, rf; 5. Sanchez, 1b; 6. Kearns, lf; 7. Buck, c; 8. Murphy, 2b; 9. Zambrano, p.

      Nationals: 1. Desmond, ss; 2. Espinosa, 2b; 3. Zimmerman, 3b; 4. LaRoche, 1b; 5. Werth, rf; 6. Nady, lf; 7. Ankiel, cf; 8. Flores, c; 9. Detwiler, p.

      Umpires: HP -- Gerry Davis; 1B -- Greg Gibson; 2B -- Phil Cuzzi; 3B -- Vic Carapazza.

Comments

[flagstafffishfan]

Should be a good test for the team to see where they stand. The Nats have a solid pitching core.

[Trainer]

When is Lomo going on the DL. Sooner or Later?

[Glags]

Put Lomo on the 15 day DL and put Coghlan out there and see how he does.

[laurelbowie]

Glags,
I agree. I've been saying that all season. Bring up Bryan Petersen. He's solid at all three OF spots, he hit well at times last year and his presence would add some more speed to the lineup, Neither Stanton nor Lomo is doing us much good gimping around there.

[awareadams]

Give Lomo a break: trade him to the Giants!

[Clark]

Update on Infante. He and Guillen said he would not return to the starting lineup until Tuesday. He's not available at all tonight. It's possible he could pinch-hit as early as Saturday, but more likely Sunday -- Clark

[Glags]

Zambrano is looking like this years Vazquez. I'll give credit to the FO for taking a chance on two guys that nobody wanted and coming out on top. Zambrano should be 3-0. I've said before, unless whatever anger issues he had are passed him, it's only a matter of time before he looses his cool. If he doesn't then hes a better man than I am.

[russell]

Glags,

Lets not forget at this time last year we were blasting Vazquez and wondering what the hecht were the Fish thinkng. That's why I'll wait at least til Mid May before I curse Stanton (still just a kid) and Lomo; then again Lomo is too.

[Fed Up]

This is what happens when you hire unqualified ESPN blowhards to be your assistant coach. Who the hell shut this "team" out tonight? Max Detweiler from "The Sound of Music"? Awful. Maybe the Art Dealer and the Latent Lawyer can hire Rick Sutcliffe to corch up the pitchers next. Bah!

[Glags]

In fairness be it Detwiller or Strasburg their starting 5 have been really good so far. I'm sure things will balance out eventually but it's scary to think that the Nats could very well keep this up.

[Flav C]

Glags - Detwiler played well, no question about it and i will not take that away from him. But it baffles me the lack of patience at the plate by some of the Fish batters. Detwiler played 1 ST game only and his first 2 starts this season were basically treated as ST games, therefore he was pulled out of the games after 5 innings. And tonight would be no different; everyone who reads the MLB news knew that Detwiler would be out of the game early. Now, if you already know the kid won't last long, so make him pitch!! Make him throw as much pitches as possible so you can make his start even shorter. And what did we see tonight? Batters swinging their bats at 1-0, 2-0 counts, grounding out weakly, popping out. Gaby is playing like a 4th round draft pick. Our 4-5-6 is hitting .260. That would be ok, if this average had a good SLG and drove in runs. Our 4-5-6 has a .328 SLG, drove in only 15 RBIs and scored 8 runs. Comparing with the Nats, (who isn't a powerful team at bat), their 4-5-6 has a .403 SLG, driving in 26 RBIsand scored 19 runs. Before I forget, Stanton/LoMo/Gaby combine for 0 HR in 134 at bats so far.

[Beane]

Marlins looked good beating up the Cubbies and the 'Stros....next 10 games against the Nats,Mets and D-Backs will give a better picture of how good the Marlins really are. Better yet, wait to the 40 game mark in May to make any premature expectations, good or bad.