WASHINGTON — Braxton Garrett was once again dominant on the mound and the Miami Marlins’ offense gave him enough support in the seventh inning to take the lead for good in a 5-2 series-clinching win over the Washington Nationals on Saturday at Nationals Park.
The Marlins improve to 40-31 on the season and are the sixth team in MLB to reach 40 wins, joining the Tampa Bay Rays, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Nationals fall to 27-43.
The Marlins are nine games over .500 for the first time since July 31, 2016.
Garrett held the Nationals to just one run on four hits and a walk while striking out eight over six innings. He threw a season-high 90 pitches, 55 of which landed for strikes.
Over his past seven starts, Garrett has posted a 2.13 ERA, giving up just nine earned runs over 38 innings while striking out 49 and walking just eight. He has held opponents to two earned runs or fewer in six of those seven outings. Miami is 6-1 over Garrett’s past seven starts.
On Saturday, the lone run he gave up came in the fourth, when Joey Meneses hit a one-out RBI single one at-bat after Jeimer Candelario hit a double that tied the game at 1-1. He effectively mixed in all of his pitches, throwing 27 cutters, 20 sliders, 19 sinkers, 11 curveballs, 10 change-ups and three four-seam fastballs.
And the offense, despite some missed opportunities that could have broken the game open sooner, gave Garrett the run support he needed.
The Marlins opened scoring in the second on a Jonathan Davis sacrifice fly that scored Jesus Sanchez, who led off the inning with a double and got to third on a Joey Wendle double.
In the seventh, Miami took the lead for good. The Marlins had the bases loaded with one out after a Davis walk, Nick Fortes single and Luis Arraez intentional walk. Nationals reliever Chad Kuhl then walked Jorge Soler on four pitches to force in Davis and threw a wild pitch during Bryan De La Cruz’s ensuing at-bat that allowed Fortes to score and push the Marlins’ lead to 3-1.
De La Cruz gave the Marlins some insurance runs with a two-run single in the ninth with the bases loaded. De La Cruz was 0 for his last 21 dating back to the start of the Mariners series on Monday before that hit.
Steven Okert and Dylan Floro worked around a pair of hits for a scoreless seventh. Tanner Scott held Washington to just one run in the eighth after giving up back-to-back hits to lead off the inning. And A.J. Puk secured the win with a scoreless ninth inning for his team-leading ninth save of the season.
