Dontrelle Willis earned his 20th victory of the season Wednesday night as he helped the Florida Marlins down the Washington Nationals 12-1. The win kept Florida a game behind the Houston Astros in the fight for the NL wild card.
Willis joined the Cardinals Chris Carpenter as the only 20 game winners in the majors thus far in 2005. Willis is now 20-8 on the season with an ERA of 2.52. He became the first pitcher in the Marlins brief history to reach the 20 win plateau.
'I'm dumbfounded right now, very ecstatic just because of how my teammates felt for me today. They were pulling for me,' said Willis after the game as Marlins closer Todd Jones doused his head with beer. 'I'm kind of breath taken. It's historic. It's a beautiful thing, not only for baseball, but for my team. Hopefully we'll just keep going.'
Carlos Delgado blasted his 28th home run of the year in the third inning to open the game up. Delgado led Florida hitters with three RBIs while catcher Paul Lo Duca pitched in with a two more. Both Delgado and Miguel Cabrera now have 100 RBIs on the year for Florida.
The Nationals exhausted bullpen just couldn't keep up. Due to injuries, Washington is down to three healthy starters and their bullpen is just plain tired. Starter John Halama was gone after just 2/3 of an inning but still took the loss to drop to 0-3. A total of seven pitchers took the mound for the Nationals but none of them went more than two innings.
The Marlins are holding up hopes that they can still make the playoffs as the wild card.
'These guys are on a mission,' Marlins manager Jack McKeon said with pride. 'Everyone's chipping in now.'
The Marlins made the playoffs twice in their history, both times as the wild card. In both instances, they went on the win the World Series.
