The Florida Marlins came right back from the three game sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1. Ricky Nolasco got the start for Florida, and went eight innings, with nine strikeouts. Nolasco’s impressive effort resulted in his eighth victory of the year, and Florida’s 41st.

“That was the most important thing today was to snap that losing streak and get on the right page again,” Nolasco said. “We had a rough stretch of games there.”

Arizona got out to an early lead when 2009 free agent Orlando Hudson hit a sacrifice fly to knock in Stephen Drew. After the first inning in which Nolasco allowed three hits, he settled down to shutout the D-Backs over the next seven innings. After Nolasco exited, former anaheim Angel Kevin Gregg came on to record his 14th save.

“At the beginning of the game I couldn’t tell which way we were going to go,” Florida catcher Matt Treanor said. “It wasn’t like (Nolasco) was laboring but he was searching to find a slot. The ball was coming out different than his previous starts. The big thing is he didn’t give in and he kept pitching throughout the inning.”

The game’s loser, Micah Owings, had to leave the game in the fifth inning due to injury. In the 4th inning, Owings injured his right leg covering first base after Mike Jacobs hit a grounder to Chad Tracy. Owings claimed that the injury wasn’t serious in the 4th, but clearly pitching hurt in the fifth, manager Bob Melvin pulled him from the game.

“It’s not a time frame for us to feel sorry for ourselves,” Owings said after the game. “It’s time for us to dig a little deeper and pick each other up and keep working.”