Bour homers as Marlins hold off Nationals
MIAMI -- Justin Bour hit a two-run, tie-breaking homer and Jose Fernandez improved his record at Marlins Park to 21-1 as the Miami Marlins defeated the first-place Washington Nationals 3-2 Saturday night.
Miami had a 3-1 lead entering the ninth and held on as closer A.J. Ramos allowed one run on a Wilson Ramos single.
Washington loaded the bases with no outs before Ramos got pinch-hitter Jayson Werth on a double-play groundout. Jose Lobaton then hit a grounder for the final out, giving Ramos 13 saves this season.
Marcell Ozuna nearly hit for the cycle with a triple, double and single, and Ichiro Suzuki went 4-for-4 to help Miami (22-20) snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 6-6 against the Nationals this season.
Washington (26-17) had its three-game win streak broken.
Bour pulled an inside slider to right field, where it hit the facade leading to the upper deck. Bour?s eighth homer of the season led to a raucous celebration by Fernandez, who jumped up and down and pumped his right fist in the Miami dugout.
Fernandez (6-2) allowed four hits, one walk and one run, striking out nine in six innings. He has struck out nine or more batters in three straight starts.
He out-dueled Joe Ross (3-4), who had allowed just one run through five innings before getting ambushed by the first two batters in the sixth. Ozuna tripled to right-center and trotted home on Bour's homer.
Suzuki, who also had a walk, had three of Miami's first four hits, all singles, before doubling in the ninth. His second hit bounced off the glove of third baseman Anthony Rendon, and his third hit went off left fielder Chris Heisey, who charged in but couldn't make the play after over-running it slightly.
The 42-year-old Suzuki has 2,954 major-league hits. With one more hit, he would tie Willie Keeler for 32nd place on the MLB list.
One major negative for Miami was the play of Giancarlo Stanton, who had three strikeouts in each of his three at-bats. He is 0-for-17 with 15 strikeouts in his last five games and has four hits 48 at-bats.
Meanwhile, Washington slugger Bryce Harper went 2-for-4 and scored one run.
Washington opened the scoring in the fourth inning. Heisey drew a one-out walk on eight pitches and advanced to third on a line-drive single by Harper.
Fernandez was close to escaping the jam when he struck out Daniel Murphy on a low-and-away slider. But while Murphy, who leads the majors in batting average and is extremely tough to strike out, failed to get the run home, Clint Robinson picked up an RBI by singling through Fernandez's legs.
Miami tied the score in the fifth. Suzuki singled, advanced to third when Ross threw wildly on a pickoff attempt at first and scored on a single by Martin Prado, who shot the ball through a drawn-in infield.
NOTES: Marlins LF Christian Yelich (back) was a late scratch. LF Ichiro Suzuki started instead. ... Washington rested half of Friday's staring lineup, taking out C Wilson Ramos, 1B Ryan Zimmerman, CF Michael Taylor and LF Jayson Werth. In their place, Washington started C Jose Lobaton, 1B Clint Robinson, CF Ben Revere and LF Chris Heisey. ... Marlins manager Don Mattingly was critical of SS Adeiny Hechavarria for being thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double with Miami trailing 4-1 in Friday's seventh inning. "You have to play the scoreboard there," Mattingly said. ... Saturday was the 23rd birthday of Nationals RHP Joe Ross. Friday was the 37th birthday of the Nationals' oldest player, Werth, who went 2-for-5 with an outfield assist on his special day. Nationals manager Dusty Baker said Werth, whose contract expires after the 2017 season, is "maybe getting younger on his birthday."