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Mitre Stymies Nats
Marlins third baseman Miguel Cabrera is unable to throw out the Nationals' Ryan Zimmerman at first base in the first inning at Dolphins Stadium.
(By Alan Diaz -- Associated Press)
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As good as Mitre's performance looked in the box score, it looked even better in the stadium. Two of the six hits he surrendered were infield singles. One was a blooper behind the third base that barely landed fair. Nearly everything was hit on the ground.
In short, Mitre's sinking sinkerball sank the Nationals.
"He deserves all the credit," Acta said. "He had a power-sinker going."
Washington starter Matt Chico, meantime, got stuck with mixed reviews and his fifth defeat. He worked out of jams and got big outs, but he consistently fell behind in the count and committed three critical mistakes.
He struck out five in six innings, one of his three walks was intentional and he allowed a respectable seven hits, but the problem was this: Three of those hits happened to leave the ballpark.
In the first inning, Marlins all-star Miguel Cabrera hit a two-run home run to left-center field. In the second, Jeremy Hermida crushed a fastball to right field for a solo shot. In the sixth, Josh Willingham smashed a two-run shot to left field.
"I just didn't have my location," Chico said. "Every time I was throwing [the ball] away, it was cutting right back over" the plate.
If the scoreboard had been flipped, Washington would have been celebrating the performances of relievers Chris Schroder and Billy Traber, who combined to strike out five and hold the Marlins hitless in two innings. Instead, their efforts meant little.
The Nationals went down in order five times. Zimmerman scored Washington's first run after reaching first on a ground ball to shortstop and moving to third on a bloop hit over third base. He came home on a rare fly ball to right field by Austin Kearns.
In the eighth, pinch hitter Robert Fick singled to left and came home on Belliard's smash off of the scoreboard. That, however, was it.
"When the game progressed," Belliard said, "we were just trying to figure out how he was pitching. . . . It was too hard to figure that out."
