Nats flounder against Marlins

MIAMI — Left-hander Billy Traber gave the Washington Nationals quality pitching, but it was not good enough to compensate for inferior hitting.

The Nationals mustered just four hits against Florida Marlins rookie starter Anibal Sanchez and two relievers in a 3-1 loss last night at Dolphin Stadium. A home run by Alfonso Soriano accounted for the lone run for Washington, which went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

“We don’t take full advantage of our opportunities,” manager Frank Robinson said. “We don’t focus in on what we want to do in the opportunity and what the pitcher is trying to do.”

Robinson, meanwhile, accused the Marlins of being instructed to deliberately get hit by pitches. Traber hit two Marlins, with the second leading to the tying run in what proved to be a decisive three-run seventh inning.

In a three-game series two weeks ago at RFK Stadium, Nationals pitchers hit four Marlins.

“They do it,” said Robinson, who went out to home plate umpire Jerry Crawford in the seventh inning to argue that the Marlins hitters made no attempt to get out of the way of Traber’s pitches. “I’ve seen it. They make a habit of doing that, and I’m sure they’ve been told to do it, and they do it as a team.”

Traber (3-2) struck out a career-high seven batters and allowed three runs on six hits in 62/3 innings.

The 9,316 in attendance could not have expected a duel between Sanchez and Traber, a journeyman. However, they matched each other almost pitch for pitch for five innings.

Traber, whose fastball tops out at around 86 mph, relies on offspeed pitches.

“You just kind of got to know what kind pitcher you are,” Traber said. “If you’re a guy who throws 96 [mph], there’s a good chance you’re going to get a lot of strikeouts. For a guy like me … I want them to get themselves out. I want them to hit my pitches.”

Last night was Traber’s third start with the Nationals since spending three months in the minor leagues. Traber underwent Tommy John elbow surgery in 2003 while pitching for the Cleveland Indians and sat out the 2004 season.

The Nationals signed Traber as a free agent in November, and he opened the season at Class AAA New Orleans. With the Nationals’ starting pitchers going down with injuries all season, it was just a matter of time before Traber was called up. He went 7-7 with a 4.05 ERA in 21 starts for New Orleans and allowed three earned runs or less in 14 of those 21 starts.

This was the first time in Traber’s career that he has faced the Marlins. Perhaps that unfamiliarity worked to his advantage as he scattered four hits through the first five innings. A Hanley Ramirez double down the left-field line was the only extra-base hit he allowed to that point, and he had six strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Sanchez also was in cruise control. He two-hit the Nationals over the first five innings before rain interrupted play. Sanchez, acquired from the Boston Red Sox as part of the Josh Beckett deal, was looking for his first win since July 25.

The 17-minute rain delay snapped Sanchez’s rhythm. Once play resumed in the sixth inning, Soriano struck. On the third pitch, he blasted his 41st home run of the season an estimated 391 feet inside the left-field foul pole to give Washington a 1-0 lead.

“[Sanchez] got like 15 to 20 minutes to sit down and not throw any balls, so I think he got a little relaxed or something,” Soriano said.

Soriano, just the second player in franchise history to hit 40 home runs in a season, is three home runs shy of tying Vladimir Guerrero’s single-season mark set in 2000.

Soriano’s home run last night gives him 17 RBI in his last 20 games.

Going into last night’s game, Sanchez had held the Nationals to a .194 batting average in three previous meetings — one win and two no-decisions. It was the second time Soriano has homered off Sanchez this season.

The restart also affected Traber. He escaped unscathed after pitching himself into trouble in the sixth inning. After retiring the first two batters, Traber walked Miguel Cabrera and rookie Josh Willingham and hit first baseman Wes Helms to load the bases. Traber got Marlins center fielder Cody Ross, who came into last night’s game hitting .213 since being acquired in a May 26 trade with the Cincinnati Reds, to pop up to first baseman Nick Johnson to end the threat.

While Traber survived the sixth inning, he could not do the same in the seventh. He opened the inning by hitting Jeremy Hermida, the Marlins’ No. 8 hitter. Pinch hitter Reggie Abercrombie advanced Hermida to second with a well-placed bunt down the third-base line.

Ramirez drove in Hermida with a triple into the left-field corner that tied the game 1-1. Dan Uggla, a leading candidate for National League rookie of the year, drove in Ramirez with a single up the middle to give the Marlins their first lead of the game.

Right-handed reliever Jon Rauch came on to face Cabrera. The Venezuelan singled to Soriano in left field, but Soriano dropped the ball while trying to transfer it from his glove to his throwing hand. Uggla came all the way around from first to score, and the Marlins led 3-1.