Casey McGehee's road hitting streak, Marlins winning 1-run games

PHILADELPHIA -- Casey McGehee will put his 16-game road hitting streak on the line tonight when the Marlins face the Phillies and Cole Hamels.

McGehee is nowhere close to Luis Castillo's club-record 27-game road hitting streak, set in 2001. But he isn't far behind some of the others on the list.

Greg Dobbs and Cliff Floyd are tied for the second-longest road streak at 19 games. McGehee's streak is presently tied for the 10th-longest in team history. But a hit tonight would move him into a tie for the 7th longest.

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With their 3-2 victory on Wednesday, the Marlins improved their record in one-run games to 18-10 -- a significant turnaround from last year's abysmal 24-35 mark in such contests. In fact, the Marlins are tied with the Pirates for the most 1-run wins in the majors.

Probably the biggest reason for the turnaround is the fact the Marlins are scoring far more runs than they did a season ago.

"I think part of it is probably our offense," said manager Mike Redmond. "But part of it is probably our pitching, too, and having a great closer down there helps. But definitely the offense has helped."

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After wrapping up their season with the Phillies, the Marlins will return home to face the team with the best record in the majors, the Oakland A's.

The A's lead the majors in runs scored.

"I think there are some similarities between the two teams, just as far as they don't have a bunch of huge names," McGehee said. "I think they've got not a lot of household names who are doing a really good job for them."

Though the A's payroll of $83 million is much greater than the Marlins' figure of $47 million, Oakland still ranks 25th in terms of the money it spends on its roster.

The Marlins have gone 8-1 in interleague play this season. The A's have visited South Florida only once previously, during the 2003 season when they won two of three. Overall, the Marlins have gone 5-4 in their three series meetings.

"They've done a great job of bringing in guys and mixing and matching," Redmond said of the A's roster. "That's a team that doesn't get a lot of publicity, media attention, probably not as close as they should. But they're a great ballclub. Those guys hit. They rake. They've got some free-swingers. It's not the work-the-count-and-try-to-get-on-base anymore. Those guys are swinging the bats, and they can pitch, too."

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