Nationals lineup comes back to life in 7-2 win over Marlins

MIAMI - They spent four days at hitter-friendly Miller Park swinging through high fastballs and low breaking balls, unable to generate offense when they needed it. Then the Nationals arrived at cavernous Marlins Park tonight and proceeded to rediscover their lost ability for offensive explosions.

Behind big performances from Daniel Murphy and Anthony Rendon, the Nationals broke out of their funk and cruised to a 7-2 victory over the Marlins that moved them another step closer to another division title.

With 25 games remaining on the schedule, the Nats now lead Miami by 16 games. That leaves their magic number at 10, with a chance to get it all the way down to six should they sweep this series against a Marlins club they've now beaten four times in the last week.

"We don't get up any more for them," manager Dusty Baker insisted. "We know that you have to beat them. They're not going to beat themselves."

The Nationals won this game behind an effective-if-not-electric start by A.J. Cole and then lights-out work by their bullpen, though most of that came with a healthy lead.

The real stars of this victory, though, held bats in their hands. Rendon and Murphy took turns trying to outdo each other at the plate in a tit-for-tat showdown.

Rendon got things started with a two-run homer in the second, giving the Nationals a lead they would not concede.

"All of a sudden, it's 2-1 just like that," Murphy said. "We kind of felt like, as an offense, we were off and running after that."

Murphy responded to Rendon's blast with a solo homer of his own in the top of the third, his first since Aug. 13 and the first step toward snapping out of a rare mini-slump over the weekend.

Murphy's two-run double in the top of the seventh - it would've been a three-run double had it not bounced over the left-center field wall - left him 3-for-4 with seven total bases and three RBIs. Two batters later, Rendon doubled down the left field line to drive in two more and leave himself 3-for-4 with seven total bases and four RBIs.

Thus did the Nationals score seven runs in seven innings, after having managed only eight total runs in 36 innings in Milwaukee the previous four days.

"Our offense came to life tonight, especially Murph and Rendon," Baker said. "They've been there all year, but they had big nights, big RBI nights, which is a big help for us."

Pressed back into service after Erick Fedde had to be placed on the 10-day disabled list with a strained flexor in his forearm, Cole found himself trying to pitch out of trouble the entire night. He didn't complete one clean, 1-2-3 inning. But he still found a way to minimize the damage and depart with a lead intact.

Cole needed 32 pitches in the bottom of the first, issuing a pair of walks and a single. Errors by both Matt Wieters (on a stolen base attempt) and Murphy (on a potential 6-4-3 double play) didn't help matters, but the right-hander escaped with only one unearned run crossing the plate.

"My players are trying to make good plays behind me," Cole said. "A few throwing errors, but I got their backs. They're trying to make good plays for me. I'm going to step up and do what I can."

Cole had to pitch out of the stretch the vast majority of his start, with at least one runner almost always on base. But he made only one other costly mistake: a 2-2 fastball to Giancarlo Stanton in the bottom of the fifth. The Marlins slugger blasted it the other way, taking out a television camera perched right next to the right field foul pole for his league-leading 53rd homer of the season.

Cole departed with two outs in the sixth, his pitch count at 100, but the Nationals bullpen had no trouble closing things out after that. Matt Albers struck out Miguel Rojas to end the sixth with his team still at that point clinging to a 3-2 lead.

Baker was all set to use his top three relievers to close out a tight game after that. Even after his batters scored four runs in the top of the seventh to break open the game, the manager still let Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle pitch as planned. That trio combined to pitch 3 1/3 scoreless innings.

"They've walked us off, I think, two or three times here," Baker said of the Marlins. "This is a big offensive team, like ours. They can score a lot of runs in a hurry. You don't want to wait to get in trouble and then bring those guys in. These guys have come back on us ... ooh, a lot. You're never really comfortable until the game's over."