Marlins cruise past Pirates, who fall further behind in NL wild-card race
MIAMI — Griffin Conine and Heriberto Hernández homered, and Janson Junk worked six solid inning as the Miami Marlins extended their winning streak to four games with an 8-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.
Junk (6-7) allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits and a walk in six innings. Tyler Zuber, Calvin Faucher and Victor Vodnik each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.
Conine reached base five times. He doubled leading off the third against Carmen Mlodzinski (6-5) with the game tied at 1. Hernández followed with a walk before Agustín Ramírez doubled for a 2-1 lead one out later. That chased Mlodzinski, who was charged with four runs on five hits.
Evan Sisk walked pinch-hitter Javier Sanoja to load the bases and hit Leo Jiménez with a pitch before walking Joe Mack to force in two more runs. Xavier Edwards hit a sacrifice fly for a 5-1 lead. Sisk got two outs and yielded a run.
Conine hit his 13th homer off former Marlins reliever Lake Bachar for a 6-2 lead in the fourth. Bachar, acquired at the trade deadline, walked Conine before Hernández's 17th homer for a six-run advantage in the sixth. The right-hander surrendered three runs on three hits in three innings.
Nick Gonzalez singled and scored on a two-out throwing error by shortstop Otto Lopez to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead in the second.
Edwards' infield hit with two outs and the bases loaded tied it 1-all in the bottom of the inning.
Miami (62-59) is 38-24 at home. It is the team's best 62-game run at home since 2003, when it won its second World Series. The Marlins trail the Phillies and Diamondbacks by 1 1/2 games for the final NL wild card.
Valdez added a sacrifice fly in the fourth for Pittsburgh, who have gone 1-7 since the trade deadline.
Pirates RHP Braxton Ashcraft (11-5, 4.08) starts Thursday against RHP Tyler Phillips (3-5, 3.47) as the Marlins go for the series sweep.
