WASHINGTON(AP) -- John Baker tilted a slugfest in Florida's favor,
while Burke Badenhop stopped Washington cold.

Baker homered and matched a career high with four RBIs, Jorge
Cantu also connected and the Florida Marlins beat Washington 9-6
Friday night, dealing the Nationals their seventh consecutive
loss and officially eliminating them from postseason contention.

"When your starters don't go more than three innings, it's a
roll of the dice," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "It's
slow-pitch softball style. They've got a pretty good offensive
team and we've got a pretty good offensive team. It's not a good
feeling. I'm glad we were on the winning end of it, but it could
have easily been the other way around."

Cantu and Hanley Ramirez had two RBIs each in Florida's third
straight victory.

"It's good when we have (13) hits and everybody's swinging the
bat well at once. That's when we win games," Baker said. "We
haven't really ridden any one player besides Hanley for the
whole season. When you get multiple hits out of multiple
players, it's going to be a good night most of the time."

Badenhop (6-4) allowed one hit over three scoreless innings,
part of a stellar effort turned in by the bullpen after starter
Sean West was yanked following three ineffective innings.

"He's been like that all season. We've kind of come to expect it
from him," Baker said of Badenhop. "It was huge. When the
starting pitcher doesn't go deep into the game, you've got to
have someone who can and knock out three, four innings for you,
and I think he was the player of the game for us today."

The Nationals didn't cash in on the opportunities they had to
score once Badenhop entered in the game. Josh Bard stranded
eight of the 11 runners the Nationals left on base, leaving the
sacks full in the fourth against Badenhop and in the seventh
versus Kiko Calero.

"We had a lot of chances. ... We just could not get the big
hit," Nationals interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "It was a
combination of they made their pitches at the right time and the
bullpen threw six innings of one-run ball."

Leo Nunez pitched the ninth for his 18th save in 23 tries.

Josh Willingham homered for the Nationals, who equaled their
season's longest losing streak.

Florida took a quick 3-0 lead in the first against Garrett Mock,
starting in place of Craig Stammen, who was scratched with a
sore right elbow. After the game, general manager Mike Rizzo
said Stammen would undergo season-ending surgery Sunday to
remove a bone spur from his right elbow.

Chris Coghlan extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a
leadoff single and moved to second on a groundout before scoring
on Ramirez's single to left. Cantu followed with his 14th homer,
a shot to left off an 0-2 pitch.

In the second, Cameron Maybin tripled off the wall in
right-center and scored when Nick Johnson blooped a two-out,
opposite-field single to left.

Washington got within 4-2 in the second on Gonzalez's two-run
triple.

Baker's two-run homer made it 6-2 in the third. Cantu drew a
leadoff walk before Baker lined a pitch into the first row of
the left-field stands for his career-high ninth homer and third
this season against Washington.

Ryan Zimmerman tripled with two out in the bottom of the inning,
then scored on Dunn's bad-hop single past first. Willingham hit
Sean West's next pitch over the wall in left for a two-run
homer, making it 6-5.

Both starting pitchers departed after three innings. West gave
up five runs on seven hits and struck out four. Mock (3-7)
allowed six runs on seven hits.

"I wasn't throwing the ball," Mock said. "It's grenade
launching."

Baker singled home Ramirez, who had led off the fifth with a
double, for a two-run lead. Ramirez's sacrifice fly and Baker's
RBI single made it 9-5 in the sixth.

Zimmerman drove in a run with an infield single in the eighth.

NOTES: The outing was West's shortest in 17 career starts. ...
The Nationals added LHP Victor Garate to the roster before
Friday's game. Garate was claimed off waivers from the Los
Angeles Dodgers to complete an Aug. 30 trade for IF Ronnie
Belliard. Washington also activated C Jesus Flores from the
15-day disabled list, but he is still strengthening a right
shoulder injury and will initially be limited to pinch-hitting
duties.