SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Florida beat up on Tomo Ohka for nine runs in the first two innings, and Brad Penny cruised as the Marlins beat the Montreal Expos 14-4 Saturday night.
The Marlins scored five unearned in the first as they stayed a game back of Philadelphia in the NL wild-card race.
A crowd of 14,570 watched at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. The Expos fell to 11-7 in Puerto Rico, where they are playing 22 "home" games this season -- after this three-game series, they play three games against the Chicago Cubs.
Ohka (8-12) faced 19 batters in the first two innings, giving up six hits and nine runs -- four earned.
Juan Pierre led off the game with a single, Luis Castillo sacrificed and reached first on a throwing error by Ohka, and Ivan Rodriguez singled to load the bases.
Jeff Conine then hit a grounder to shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who threw wildly to home plate allowing Pierre and Castillo to score. One out later, Derrek Lee hit his second home run of the series, a three-run shot that put the Marlins ahead 5-0.
Florida added four runs in the second behind Miguel Cabrera's three-run double. Cabrera later scored on a wild pitch by Ohka.
By the third inning, Expos manager Frank Robinson had taken most of his starters out of the game. He even used two pitchers as pinch-hitters: Joey Eischen in the fourth and T.J. Tucker in the seventh. Both got hits.
Conine reached base again in the sixth with a single, moved to third on a single by Juan Encarnacion and scored when reliever Hector Almonte threw a wild pitch.
Florida added two in the seventh with a towering solo homer by Ramon Castro and an RBI double by Gerald Williams, both off Scott Stewart.
Penny (13-10) gave up two run-scoring singles in the sixth to Ron Calloway and Jose Macias. He allowed eight hits and two runs in six innings, striking out four.
Reliever Chad Fox gave up an RBI hit to Joe Vitiello and a sacrifice fly to Jamie Carroll in the seventh.
Encarnacion added a two-run homer in the ninth off Chad Cordero.
Notes
Lee's 28th homer came on his 28th birthday, only the fourth time in major league history a player celebrated a birthday by hitting a homer that as the number same as his age. ... Penny had to be restrained by manager Jack McKeon when he got into a heated argument with third base umpire Rob Drake after the sixth, claiming runner Henry Mateo did not touch third base on his way to scoring Montreal's second run.
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