Maybe the Florida Marlins are for real.
Andrew Miller pitched seven impressive innings and Florida blanked the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks 4-0 Thursday night to finish an unexpected three-game sweep in a showdown of first-place teams.
The Atlanta Braves also completed a sweep, winning their fourth straight against the struggling New York Mets as Tim Hudson outpitched Johan Santana.
Brad Lidge had a big night in Houston, saving Philadelphia’s 7-5 victory over his former team, and Ken Griffey Jr. broke a long home run drought with No. 598 of his career.
But it’s the Marlins who have been baseball’s biggest surprise this season.
“I don’t mind if they count us out until they can’t anymore,” Miller said. “That doesn’t affect the way we play. If we’re the underdog all along, that’s fine.”
The series against Arizona was the most impressive yet by the Marlins. The team with baseball’s lowest payroll built its improbable NL East lead with the help of a weak early schedule, but there was nothing fluky about the way it handled the NL West leaders.
The 23-year-old Miller (4-3) had a career-high nine strikeouts and allowed only one runner to reach second base. Acquired in the trade that sent Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit, Miller had an ERA of 9.12 on May 1, but it’s now down to 5.33 and he has won four of his past five decisions.
“This is a big series for us confidence-wise,” said Wes Helms, who drove in two runs with a pinch-hit double. “This is something to build on. It shows this team we can do big things. We not only can beat the small teams; we can beat the big teams.”
In other NL games, it was: Atlanta 4, New York 2; Pittsburgh 8, Milwaukee 4; and San Diego 8, Cincinnati 2.
The Diamondbacks arrived in Miami with the best record in the big leagues, but they totaled only 17 hits in the three games and were outscored 10-3. The shutout was the first against them this season.
“We’re just struggling,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’re going to have to fight through it.”
Dan Haren (5-3) allowed eight hits and four runs in 6 1-3 innings.
The Marlins, last in the majors in fielding, committed no errors in the series and repeatedly came through with clutch hits. And long-apathetic South Florida is beginning to notice its upstart team: The crowd of 13,233 for the final game was the largest this week.
Baseball fever, Miami style.
“The only way you get people in the stands is to win,” Helms said. “You win, they’ll come. It might take another month, but they’ll come. All we have to do is keep winning.”
At Houston, the Phillies hit Roy Oswalt hard and got home runs from Ryan Howard and pinch-hitter Pat Burrell to win their third straight.
Howard also had an RBI double and Lidge improved to 12-for-12 in save chances this season by pitching a scoreless ninth. He retired slugger Lance Berkman on a game-ending popup with a runner on.
Lidge saved 72 games during six years in Houston, but was traded away last offseason after blowing 14 save chances over the past two. It all started with Albert Pujols’ mammoth homer in Game 5 of the 2005 NL championship series, but Lidge looked more like the dominant closer he was before that fateful hit, needing only 13 pitches to finish off the Astros.
“It’s only human nature to want to do good against your old team,” he said. “I guess it’s official that that part of my career is over.”
Lidge heard an odd mix of boos and cheers when he trotted out from the visitors’ bullpen. He soon struck out Michael Bourn, one of the players the Astros acquired for him in the big trade last November.
“It was a lot of fun for me, a lot of adrenaline,” Lidge said. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Burrell broke a 5-all tie with an eighth-inning homer off Wesley Wright (3-2).
Braves 4, Mets 2
At Atlanta, Chipper Jones singled home the go-ahead run during a three-run seventh against Santana, and Hudson (7-3) pitched the Braves to their first four-game sweep of the Mets in five years.
Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado homered on consecutive pitches from Hudson in the second inning. But Santana (5-3) couldn’t hold the 2-0 lead while giving up a career-high 12 hits and four runs, three earned, in seven innings.
The left-hander had one strikeout, a season low, while losing for the first time since April 12. The struggling Mets fell to 22-23 with their seventh loss in 10 games, a frustrating stretch that has led to speculation about manager Willie Randolph being fired.
New York dropped below .500 for the first time since April 13.
Will Ohman got the final out for his second career save and first this season. Atlanta outscored the Mets 27-9 in the series for its 11th sweep of New York at Turner Field, the team’s home since 1997. The Braves also improved to 7-2 this season against their NL East rivals, including 6-0 in Atlanta.
Padres 8, Reds 2
At San Diego, Khalil Greene hit two solo home runs, and Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Kouzmanoff each had a two-run shot to help Randy Wolf (3-4) beat Aaron Harang (2-6).
Griffey’s two-run shot in the first inning for Cincinnati was his first home run in 90 at-bats – the second-longest drought of his career. Griffey is attempting to become the sixth player to reach 600 homers.
The Padres, who have the worst record in the majors, won for the sixth time in 18 games. Right-hander Chris Young (broken nose) and catcher Josh Bard (sprained ankle) joined ace Jake Peavy (strained elbow) on the disabled list.
Pirates 8, Brewers 4
At Pittsburgh, Jason Bay and Xavier Nady homered to back a shaky Tom Gorzelanny (4-4) and help the Pirates avoid a series sweep. Nate McLouth had his first four-hit game and scored twice. Milwaukee got 14 hits but stranded a season-high 14 runners.
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