MIAMI _ Andrew Cashner's first pitch Wednesday night went for a single, Cesar Hernandez shooting a line drive to left field. Cashner's final pitch went for a single, too, Tommy Joseph shooting another line drive to left. In between, he turned in what was perhaps his best start as a Marlin, 51/3 shutout innings in the team's 6-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. The right-hander allowed four hits in all, worked around two walks and struck out nine, tying his season high.
There was nothing especially dramatic about the Marlins avoiding a sweep at Marlins Park. No booming homers, no spectacular catches, no late rallies. It was just a win. Miami has not had a whole lot of those lately, so it'll take this one and any others it can manage.
"At this point, you're looking for anything," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. "It's going to start with one win."
Cashner had one perfect inning and pitched out of trouble in the others. His strikeouts came all sorts of ways _ high and low, fastball and slider, swinging and looking _ and even lined a single to center field, batting for himself in the fifth inning at 96 pitches.
By the sixth, when Joseph singled, the velocity on Cashner's fastball had dropped to 90 mph, down from touching 96 in the opening frame. That's when Mattingly came and got him. Cashner walked off the mound to a modest standing ovation from the home crowd of 16,592.
At the plate, the Marlins did what Mattingly so badly wants them to do: Take an early lead, then tack on runs. The first part is easy; the Marlins average one run per game in the first two innings. The second part has proven to be less easy.
On Wednesday, they got it done with quite a bit of situational hitting. After scoring in the first (Martin Prado RBI ground out) and second (J.T. Realmuto sacrifice fly), the Marlins also struck in the fifth and sixth. Prado's sac fly scored Cashner, and Realmuto grounded into a double play to bring in Marcell Ozuna. Prado and Christian Yelich added RBI doubles in the seventh.
The result? Miami's first win by more than three runs since July 30.
The tacking-on portion of the evening is easier now that the Marlins have more of their first-choice lineup back. Justin Bour (high ankle sprain) went 1-for-3 while making his first start in two months, and Ozuna (wrist sprain) went 2-for-4 with two runs scored after missing the past week.
Dee Gordon (2-for-4) had a pair of bunt singles. They went approximately 50 feet combined.
Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-4 to up his career hit total to 3,021, passing Rafael Palmeiro for 26th place on baseball's all-time hits list.
