MIAMI _ Home hasn't been sweet for Jose Urena over the past year.
That finally changed Sunday afternoon.
Urena tossed six shutout innings and allowed only one hit while getting the Marlins started at the plate during a 5-0 shutout of the Washington Nationals in front of 12,112 at Marlins Park. The Marlins drew 33,188 over their past three games _ a season-high on weekends without special promotions such as the team's 25th anniversary or Opening Weekend.
Four months to the day since Urena started for the Marlins on Opening Day, he picked up his first victory at Marlins Park since Sept. 20, 2017. Urena had not won at home in 13 previous home starts and gone 0-8 over that span with a 4.65 ERA.
"We talked about attacking the hitters and they had noticed I wasn't doing that with my pitches (recently)," said Urena, whose teammates gave him the team's new 'MVP chain' after the win.
The Marlins (46-61) also secured back-to-back wins over the Nationals for the first time since Aug. 1-2, 2017.
Urena entered the game with the lowest run support average of any starter in the majors this season entering the game (2.72 runs per game). He produced the Marlins' first in the second inning when he singled with two outs to drive in Miguel Rojas.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly said the key was Urena being more aggressive with hitters and attacking the strike zone _ something they hadn't seen a lot from him since he returned from the disabled list with a right shoulder impingement on July 4.
"It looked like he had good stuff again today and was aggressive and looked like the old Jose again out there," Mattingly said. "We just talked about making sure he was healthy. Once we knew that, we wanted to make sure he stayed on the aggressive side out there."
All five Marlins' runs came with two outs.
Martin Prado continued his productive return from the disabled list with two of those hits, one of which was a double in the third inning and a single in the fifth when the Marlins scored three runs to knock out Nationals starter Jeremy Hellickson.
Prado slashed only .194/.242/.226 after returning from the disabled list with a hamstring injury earlier this season. Since returning on July 5, Prado is slashing .323/.354/.435 with a home run, five doubles and 10 RBIs.
"I missed spring training basically the first time," Prado said. "The first time I came back was like my spring training. It was just about getting my mechanics back. I just needed to worry about putting good at-bats and when we do that as a team, good things happen."
The Marlins' bullpen would yield only one more hit when Juan Soto singled off Drew Steckenrider in the ninth, but preserve the team's ninth shutout of the season.
Brad Ziegler continued his fantastic work since switching back into a setup role. Ziegler recorded a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts. He entered the game with a 0.67 ERA in his previous 27 appearances (27 innings) with 20 strikeouts, 11 walks, 14 hits and only two runs allowed. Ziegler has 11 holds and a save during that span, which has put him in high demand among other clubs before the upcoming trade deadline.
