ATLANTA - Dontrelle Willis pitched a five-hitter to become the NL's first 12-game winner, leading the Florida Marlins over the Atlanta Braves 8-0 Thursday night.
Miguel Cabrera hit two homers and drove in a career-high six runs for the Marlins, who were outscored 13-0 in the first two games of the series, but used Willis' dominant outing to salvage the finale.
Willis (12-2) walked one and struck out seven in his third shutout of the season and fifth of his career. He stretched his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 19 in his eighth career complete game and fourth this season.
Jorge Sosa (3-1) gave up only four hits and three runs in six innings, but two of the hits were Cabrera's 13th and 14th homers.
Cabrera added a two-run single off Braves reliever Adam Bernero in the Marlins' four-run seventh inning, and an RBI single off Dan Kolb in the ninth.
Willis retired 17 straight batters before Andy Marte hit a triple past a diving Cabrera in left field with two outs in the eighth. Willis ended the Braves' only scoring threat when pinch-hitter Wilson Betemit grounded out to first base. The left-hander threw 113 pitches.
Back-to-back shutout losses in the first two games of the series stretched the Marlins' overall streak of scoreless innings to 24, going back to the third inning of Sunday's win at the Los Angeles Angels.
Cabrera put a quick end to the drought when his first homer gave Florida a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Sosa gave up only one other hit, a fifth-inning single by Paul Lo Duca, before the sixth inning. After Luis Castillo drew a one-out walk, Cabrera drove an 0-1 pitch an estimated 394 feet into the left-field seats for a 3-0 lead.
Cabrera's second homer of the game came on Sosa's 75th pitch. In Sosa's first two starts, he was pulled after throwing 74 and 75 pitches.
Willis also helped the Marlins at the plate. With runners on first and second in the seventh inning, Willis laid down a perfect bunt that rolled close to the third-base line. Instead of seeing if the bunt would roll foul, Marte picked up the ball and threw late to first base as Willis slid headfirst across the bag, loading the bases with the infield hit.
Juan Pierre drove in one run with a fly ball caught by a diving Brian Jordan in right field. Cabrera added a two-run single and scored on Carlos Delgado's double to center for a 7-0 lead.
NOTES: Cabrera has four multihomer games. His last two-homer game was April 8 against Washington. ... With a seventh-inning single, Alex Gonzalez stretched his hitting streak to 13 games, matching his career high. ... Before this series, the Marlins had not been shut out in consecutive games since Aug. 23-25, 2000 at San Francisco and against Cincinnati. Florida had not been shut out on consecutive days since April 10-11, 1999, at San Diego and at Los Angeles.
Monday
March 17th, 2025
12:59PM
