Fernandez Goes 6 Innings To Help Marlins Beat Nationals 6-1
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MIAMI (AP) — Jose Fernandez overcame early wildness and regained his winning touch at home, pitching six innings to help the Miami Marlins beat the Washington Nationals 6-1 Monday.
Fernandez (1-1) threw 54 pitches in the first two innings but didn't allow a hit until the fifth. He improved to 18-1 at Marlins Park, with the lone loss in his previous home start.
His victory was the first this season for a Marlins starter. Miami won at home for the first time this year in six tries.
Washington's Bryce Harper went 0 for 2 with a sacrifice fly. He had homered in his previous four games.
Giancarlo Stanton benefited from the new, cozier dimensions at Marlins Park when he homered near the 407-foot sign in center in the fifth. Last year the ball would have been off the wall.
It was the third homer for Stanton, who also singled home a run.
Tanner Roark (1-2) gave up five runs — four earned — and seven hits in six innings. The Nationals have lost two in a row after starting 9-1.
Fernandez improved to 4-0 with a 1.05 ERA in seven starts against the Nationals. He allowed four walks, three hits and one run while striking out nine.
He threw 103 pitches, including 28 to get through a scoreless second inning, when he hit a batter, walked two — one intentionally — and threw two wild pitches. He struck out Michael Taylor with the bases loaded to end the inning, and as Fernandez walked off the mound he cursed and slapped himself twice on the head with his glove, which sent his sweat flying.
Even so, the Nationals didn't manage a hit until Fernandez's 87th pitch. Michael Taylor doubled with one out in the fifth, took third on a single and scored on Harper's flyout to make it 4-1.
The Marlins scored three times in the first. Christian Yelich poked an RBI single past a drawn-in infield with one out, and Marcell Ozuna — batting .190 — delivered a two-out, two-run single.
Miami benefited from a replay reversal in the second inning, when an out on a force play at second base was overturned. The runner later scored on Martin Prado's groundout.
GOOD DEFENSE
Harper retreated and stretched in right field to make a running catch and rob Dee Gordon of an extra-base hit, and made a long run to catch Ozuna's drive on the warning track.
UP NEXT
Stephen Strasburg (2-0, 1.98) is scheduled to pitch Tuesday for the Nationals against Adam Conley (0-0, 3.86) who threw six scoreless innings in his most recent outing against the Mets and impressed his new manager, Don Mattingly. "He pounded the strike zone," Mattingly said. "He's going to come in there. He's not going to back off. He's going to pitch inside. It's interesting to watch how hitters react to him."
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