Sep 1, 2009 10:01 am US/Eastern
Marlins Lose To Braves, Dropping In Wild Card Race
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson seemed to have Monday night's game against the Atlanta Braves in full control, at least for the first six innings. Then the Braves figured out the Marlins fireballer. Omar Infante knocked in a two-run triple in the seventh inning to help pull the Braves to victory over the Marlins, 5-2.
The loss by the Marlins put them four games behind in the chase for the NL wild card playoff berth. San Francisco and Colorado are tied for the wild card, with Atlanta behind them and Florida coming in fourth.
Johnson did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, when Matt Diaz lined a 2-2 slider to center field with two outs after Kawakami had a 10-pitch at-bat.
"It's a huge win, probably the biggest one of the year especially sitting back and watching how the first six innings went," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. David Ross, Adam LaRoche, and Yunel Escobar each drove in a run for the Braves in the opener of a four-game series.
"We are very fortunate we have played some really good baseball since the All-Star break," Jones said. "Pretty much all of September we are going against teams in our division so there won't be any surprises. We have two big series with Florida and I'm sure it's going to be tooth and nail the whole way."
In the seventh, Chipper Jones and Escobar singled off Johnson (13-4) ahead of Infante's triple to deep center field with two outs. Ross then made it 3-1 with a base hit up the middle, forcing Johnson out of the game.
"Just one bad pitch," Johnson said. "The other pitches were a broken bat and a jam shot. They hit one hard ball. It's just one of those days when things don't go your way."
Johnson allowed three runs and five hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out eight and walked three.
"Johnson is one of the top guys in baseball," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "You have to put him in the top five anyway, for me, in all of baseball and that's with some really good ones. He's that good. The kid is that good."
Kawakami (7-10) quietly kept the Braves in the game as he allowed one run and six hits in six innings. He threw 51 of his 75 pitches for strikes and struck out five without walking a batter.
"After giving up that one run, I knew I couldn't give up any more runs with how (Johnson) was pitching," Kawakami said through a translator.
LaRoche and Escobar each drove in a run with back-to-back base hits to right field off Dan Meyer in the eighth to stretch Atlanta's lead to 5-1.
"Anytime your best pitcher is on the mound, you want to win those games," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "We didn't add on runs."
The Marlins took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Jorge Cantu led off with a double down the left-field line and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Dan Uggla. He added an RBI double in the ninth.
"There's no sense of urgency," Uggla said. "There's still time, there's still a lot of games left. We're all calm and relaxed and I'm pretty sure we're going to stay that way."
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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