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No matter how the
Florida Marlins
fare in the finale of their three-game series with the
San Diego Padres
on Sunday at Petco Park, they'll finish with a successful road trip.
The Marlins (22-37) have gone 5-3 so far on the nine-game trip, which included a sweep of Colorado and a 2-1 victory over
San Diego (32-30) on Saturday night.
Since slipping to 11-31 on May 21, Florida has won 11 of its past 17 games and has a chance to win another series.
The Marlins won only two series in their first 42 games, but have won three of their past five series and can take two of
three games from the Padres with a victory on Sunday.
Mike Jacobs
hit a tiebreaking RBI single for the Marlins on Saturday, one of only three hits Florida needed to win.
''It was a first-pitch fastball,'' Jacobs said. ''He ran it in on me. It's one of those situations that a lot of times they
start you with a break ball lefty-on-lefty. Sometimes you guess right. I was able to do that tonight.''
San Diego's
Adrian Gonzalez
saw his career-high and major league-best 17-game hitting streak end with an 0-for-3 night.
Brian Moehler
(3-5, 7.17 ERA) will have to pitch better on Sunday for Florida than he did in his last start. He gave up 10 hits and eight
runs in four innings of a 14-2 loss to San Francisco on Monday.
Before that outing, Moehler had allowed only nine earned runs in his previous four starts, going 3-0 in that span. His poor
performance against the Giants dropped him to last in the majors in ERA among qualifiers.
''Sometimes it's like that,'' Marlins manager
Joe Girardi
said. ''You can't expect your starting pitchers to go and give you seven innings every time. He's been really good for us,
but he just didn't have it tonight.''
Moehler is 1-3 with an 8.59 ERA in six road starts this season.
He is 0-1 with a 5.25 ERA in three career appearances - two starts - against the Padres, including a loss on April 12.
Jake Peavy
(4-6, 4.56) looks to put a string of disappointing outings behind him when he starts for San Diego on Sunday. The Padres'
ace lost 5-1 to Milwaukee on Tuesday, allowing seven hits and five runs in 3 2-3 innings.
Peavy has lost three of his last four starts, and in the one he did win - against St. Louis on May 28 - he gave up nine hits
and six runs in five innings.
Peavy's outing against the Brewers was his shortest start since lasting only two innings against Arizona on Aug. 25, 2003.
He had his start pushed back because of shoulder tendinitis and was rusty on the mound.
''The layoff helped,'' Peavy said. ''I definitely felt better going into this start, but I just don't have a whole lot of
arm strength and I wasn't sound as far as throwing the ball where I wanted it.''
Peavy is 2-2 with a 2.36 ERA in four career starts against Florida, not allowing more than two earned runs in any of them.
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