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Recap: Nationals @ Marlins Game 1

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The Marlins put a great show of offense and defense as they shutout the Nationals 9-0 in a game that only lasted two and a half hours.

The offense started in the bottom of the first by Justin Ruggiano’s 13th home run of the year. It was also the first long ball allowed by Stephen Strasburg in the first inning of a game this season.

In the same inning, Carlos Lee hustled to home plate from second off a Giancarlo Stanton hard broken bat single and narrowly avoided the tag by Kurt Suzuki.

Unfortunately for the Nats, Miami continued to hit well off Stephen Strasburg and the runs just kept coming. Lee drove in Bryan Petersen in the third and then walked across home plate along with Jose Reyes on a single from Greg Dobbs later that same inning. Ruggiano came back for more in the 4th, driving in Robert Brantly with a single.

Donovan Solano bumped up his hitting streak up to 11, against his brothers team no less, with an RBI single that drove in Stanton in the 5th. The last two runs came in the 6th thanks to yet another single from Stanton that brought Ruggiano and Ricky Nolasco home.
Stanton continues to show why he’s already one of the best in the MLB and why he was tagged as NL player of the week a few days ago. Ruggiano also proving more each day how dangerous he can be at the plate, going yard and consistently doing well at the plate. He went 4 for 4 against the Nats.

Nolasco worked the Nats lineup on top of contributing to the offense himself, retiring 14 straight until the 5th inning and only allowing 5 hits and striking out 6 batters in his 3rd career shutout and 8th complete game. With this win he improves to a 10-12 record and a 4.78 ERA.

Miami gains this W only a few days after racking up 4 home runs in a 6-2 victory against the Dodgers. If this explosiveness at the plate continues then the Fish have a solid chance of at least breaking even at the end of the season.