Marlins win 4th straight
Rick VandenHurk pitched five effective innings, five Florida players had at least one RBI and the Marlins beat the Houston Astros 8-6 Monday night for their fourth straight win.
John Baker had two RBI, and NL batting leader Hanley Ramirez had two singles and an RBI to help chase starter Brian Moehler (7-8) after five innings. Florida moved within 3 1/2 games of idle Philadelphia for the NL East lead.
VandenHurk (2-1) struck out four and allowed two runs and five hits.
Darin Erstad had a home run and three RBI for Houston.
Florida lost three straight last week to the last-place Washington Nationals and appeared on the verge of a complete collapse. The Marlins then went into Philadelphia for a three-game sweep and recharged their postseason hopes.
Baker hit a two-run double in the first to give the Marlins a 3-0 lead. Jorge Cantu had an RBI single and Cody Ross added a sacrifice fly in the inning to put Florida ahead 4-0.
After Hunter Pence singled in the second, Erstad hit a towering home run to right to cut the deficit in half.
Chris Coghlan hit an RBI single in the sixth after Baker scored on a balk by Chris Sampson. Later in the inning, Astros manager Cecil Cooper decided to intentionally walk Nick Johnson with two outs and a runner on second to have Sampson face Ramirez, who ripped a single to left that put Florida ahead 7-2.
An RBI double by Erstad in the seventh made it 7-3 and Jeremy Hermida doubled and scored from third on a wild pitch by Alberto Arias in the eighth to restore the five-run lead.
Carlos Lee had a two-run double in the ninth off Matt Lindstrom, and he scored on a balk by Leo Nunez, who got the last two outs for his 12th save.