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MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) – Trevor Rogers provided his longest outing of the season by allowing one run in six innings, and the Miami Marlins stretched their winning streak to five games with a 3-2 sweep-completing victory over the reeling Washington Nationals on Thursday.
Rogers (1-3) came in with a 6.94 ERA but lowered that to 5.09 after giving up just two hits against a Nationals lineup that has produced merely 16 runs during an eight-game losing skid.
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Cole Sulser worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth to get his first save of 2022 in his first chance.
Patrick Corbin (0-4) lost again for Washington, despite his best outing of the season, with three runs — two earned — and four hits in six-plus innings.
The Marlins improved to 10-8 and are surprisingly in second place in the NL East after a 1-4 start. The Nationals, fifth in the division in each of the two seasons since winning the 2019 World Series, are there again and fell to 6-15.
Neither club was exactly perfect Thursday, by any means. Plenty of misplays, wayward pitches, etc.
The Nationals went ahead 1-0 in the first on Josh Bell’s RBI double to right after a wild pitch and a passed ball helped get César Hernández to third following a leadoff single.
Miami made it 1-all with an unearned run in the third, when the Nationals made two miscues: a throwing error on shortstop Lucius Fox — a rookie who is also 0 for 20 and drew attention by vomiting on the field during Sunday’s game — and a fielding error on center fielder Victor Robles. Jon Berti drove home the tying run with a double.
Corbin pitched into the seventh for the first time this season but that did not go well once he got there. Brian Anderson led off with a double after Robles twisted and turned and couldn’t find the ball, losing his hat and sunglasses in the process.
A scary moment came next: Corbin hit Miguel Rojas on the flap of his helmet. Rojas tried to spin out of the way and ended up face-down in the dirt near the plate. Corbin immediately dropped to his knees in front of the mound and bowed his head on the infield grass.
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Marlins manager Don Mattingly and a trainer came out to check on Rojas, who rubbed the right side of his jaw while kneeling. Rojas remained in the game and eventually went to first base; as soon as he did, Nationals manager Dave Martinez walked from his dugout to the mound and removed Corbin.
Righty reliever Victor Arano entered, and Mattingly went to a left-handed pinch hitter, Jesús Sánchez, who promptly singled in the go-ahead run. After a groundout produced the first out of the inning, Arano’s wild pitch allowed another run in to give Miami a 3-1 lead.
Washington pulled within one run on consecutive doubles by Robles and Hernández, but Bell struck out to end the threat.
PREGAME MOVE
The Marlins optioned LHP Daniel Castano to Triple-A Jacksonville and recalled RHP Zach Pop from that minor league team. Pop was 1-0 with a 4.12 ERA in 50 relief appearances for Miami last season as a rookie.
UP NEXT
Marlins: Return to Miami for a six-game homestand that begins Friday against Seattle. RHP Elieser Hernandez (1-1, 5.87 ERA) starts the opener.
Nationals: Head out on a three-city, nine-game road trip, starting at San Francisco. RHP Aaron Sanchez (0-1 8.31), who played for the Giants last season, will be on the mound night for Washington. The Giants swept a four-game series at Nationals Park last week.
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(© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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