Nationals-Marlins Preview

The Florida Marlins are gaining ground in the NL East and have moved into a tie for second in the wild-card race mainly by feasting on the two worst clubs in their division.

The Marlins' schedule, however, will be much more challenging following the season's final matchup with the major league-worst Washington Nationals on Sunday.

Florida (76-66) won for the eighth time in 10 games Saturday night as Jorge Cantu homered and drove in five runs in an 11-3 victory.

After a four-game split with Atlanta to begin this month, the Marlins won five of six on a road trip against Washington and the New York Mets before splitting two home games with the Nationals.

Florida enters play trailing Philadelphia by five games in the division and is tied with San Francisco in the wild card -- 5 1/2 games behind Colorado.

"It's fun now, looking at the scoreboard," Cantu said, "but it's up to us to keep winning."

Following Sunday's finale, Florida will face the Mets three more times and play four in Cincinnati next weekend, but its other 12 games are against teams with winning records, including six versus the East-leading Phillies. The Marlins also have three-game sets at Central-best St. Louis and Atlanta.

To succeed during that stretch, Florida will try to stay hot at the plate as it has outscored opponents 75-43 over the last 10 games while batting .302.

As expected, All-Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez has led the way by hitting .414 with four homers and 14 RBIs to raise his NL-best average to .360. Nick Johnson has also hit .407 with nine RBIs since Sept. 2, and Cantu has driven in 12 runs.

Right-hander Chris Volstad (9-11, 5.03 ERA) gets the start for the Marlins in his return to the rotation. Volstad was 5-4 with a 2.95 ERA in 14 starts last year but has struggled this season while giving up 27 home runs this season -- tied for fourth-most in the majors.

After losing consecutive starts, he was sent to Triple-A New Orleans on Aug. 29 and lost his only start there Sept. 6 while allowing two home runs.

Three matchups against Washington this season didn't help Volstad much. After beating the Nationals in his season debut April 8, he posted a 7.27 ERA in his next two appearances against them, but did not get a decision either time.

Volstad gave up seven runs -- four earned -- over 4 1/3 innings in Florida's 12-8 defeat on Aug. 6 in Washington.

Losers in 11 of their last 14, the Nationals (49-93) will try to help John Lannan (8-11, 4.14) earn his first win in nearly six weeks. Since beating Florida on Aug. 5, the left-hander is 0-3 with a 7.67 ERA in six starts.

Lannan dropped his second straight start Tuesday by giving up six hits -- including four solo homers -- in a 5-3 defeat to visiting Philadelphia.

"I guess you could say it was home run derby," said Lannan, 1-1 with a 5.28 ERA in three starts versus the Marlins.

Nationals slugger Adam Dunn needs one RBI to reach 100 for the fifth time in six seasons. He's also three home runs shy of his sixth straight year with at least 40.