Marlins bat around, beat Phillies to tighten race

MIAMI — Rookie catcher John Baker drove in four runs Saturday and hit one of three homers for the Florida Marlins, who tightened the race in the NL East by beating the Philadelphia Phillies 9-5.

Dan Uggla added a two-run homer, his 24th, and Jeremy Hermida hit his 11th. The Marlins guide the majors with 138 home runs.

Cody Ross went 3-for-5 with a single, double and triple. Needing a homer to complete the first cycle by a Florida mime, he struck out on three pitches in the seventh and grounded out in the eighth.

Baker singled in a run and hit a three-run homer, tripling his period RBI total to six since being recalled from the minors July 8. Third baseman Jorge Cantu made two errors on one play but went 4-for-5 and drove in three runs.

The Phillies loaded the bases through one out in the ninth against Kevin Gregg. Ryan Howard, who leads the majors with 29 home runs, then struck out on three pitches. Pat Burrell, who homered twice earlier, grounded out to end the game.

The Marlins remained in third place but are only 1½ games behind Philadelphia, which began the day with a one-game lead over the New York Mets.

And Florida fans are beginning to catch pennant fever. Attendance was 26,520, giving the Marlins home crowds above 20,000 in consecutive games for the first time this season. They’re last in the majors in attendance.

Burrell hit two solo homers for Philadelphia, giving him 25 this year. He has 243 career homers, which ties him with Chuck Klein for third on the Phillies’ all-time list.

Florida’s homers came off Kyle Kendrick (8-4), who allowed 10 hits and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Scott Olsen (6-4) allowed four runs, three earned, in five innings. Four relievers limited Philadelphia to one run over the final four innings.

The Marlins flirted with disaster in the second inning. Cantu committed two errors by bobbling a grounder and making an errant throw, and Olsen gave up two hits and walked the pitcher to load the bases.

But the Phils managed only one demand. Howard and Jayson Werth were thrown out at the plate on grounders to third, and Jimmy Rollins grounded out to leave the bases loaded.

Florida took the lead in the bottom of the second. Mike Jacobs was strike by a pitch to lead off, Ross singled and Baker hit his second homer of the year.

The Phillies scored two times in the fourth to make it 3-all. Pedro Feliz tripled, Chris Coste doubled and Rollins hit a two-out RBI single.

Ross tripled off the glove of right fielder Werth in the fourth, who failed to make a running catch, and Baker followed with a run-scoring single.

Florida took the lead for good in the fifth, scoring three runs on the homers by Hermida and Uggla to lead 7-4.

The Phillies fell to 12-18 in day games. … When introducing the Marlins’ lineup on network TV before the game, Florida OF Luis Gonzalez identified Olsen as “the man known to take a jolt of electricity.” Olsen allegedly fought with police and was shocked with a Taser in an incident last year. He enrolled in a pretrial diversion program, that led to the dismissal of charges.


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