The Official Site of Hanley Ramirez

Wed, Sep 9th 2009, 11:31

Hanley, Maybin pace Marlins at Citi

Relying on the long ball hasn’t been a trait of the Marlins this season. But power played a big part for the club on Tuesday night.

Hanley Ramirez and Cameron Maybin each belted two-run home runs to help lift the Marlins to a 4-2 win over the Mets in front of 37,474 at Citi Field.

A year ago, the Marlins set a club record with 208 home runs, which was the fourth most in the Major Leagues. This season, Florida has 137 homers, seventh most in the National League.

The two big blasts were enough for Florida to take the first game of the series and improve to 3-1 on the road trip.

“The main thing is we’re staying in the race,” said Ramirez, the National League’s leading hitter with a .358 average. “That’s what it’s all about. Home runs are a complement when they come up. We’re chasing teams right now. We’ve got to keep winning.”

Giving the team a lift was the bullpen, which picked up five innings in relief of Rick VandenHurk.

VandenHurk, making his eighth start of the season, had his start cut short after four innings due to back stiffness. The 24-year-old gave up one run on four hits with three strikeouts. His fastball velocity in the first inning was around 91-92 mph, and in the fourth inning it dipped to 88-89 mph.

“Nothing serious,” VandenHurk said. “I was feeling it warming up today. I had tightness in my lat area, and it just didn’t get any better during the game. I had it rubbed out a little bit between innings. It didn’t really loosen up, so in the fourth inning, I threw a pitch; they came out and wanted to make sure I was all right. You don’t want to make it a strain or a pulled muscle.”

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