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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Florida 4, Houston 3
When: 7:05 PM ET, Friday, April 8, 2011
Where: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas
Temperature: 81°
Umpires: Home - Jim Wolf, 1B - Derryl Cousins, 2B - Jim Joyce, 3B - Ron Kulpa
Attendance: 41042

Ricky Nolasco pitched eight strong innings, and Chris Coghlan homered and drove in two runs to help the visiting Florida Marlins spoil the Houston Astros’ home opener 4-3 on Friday.

Logan Morrison added three hits and an RBI, and Gaby Sanchez went 3 for 4 with a run scored for the Marlins.

Wandy Rodriguez matched Nolasco through seven innings and left with a 2-1 lead, but Florida took advantage of the Astros' bullpen in the eighth and got to Wilton Lopez (0-1) for a pair of runs.

Greg Dobbs and Sanchez hit back-to-back one-out singles in front of Morrison, who made it 2-2 when his double to right scored Dobbs. Donnie Murphy followed with an infield single to send Sanchez across with the go-ahead run.

Nolasco (1-0) was charged with two runs and eight hits, and struck out two. He stranded the tying run on third base in the bottom of the eighth.

Coghlan, who drove in the run against Rodriguez with a fielder’s choice in the seventh, added an important insurance run with a solo shot in the ninth.

Florida's Leo Nunez allowed a homer to Brett Wallace in the bottom of the ninth, but earned his second save.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Florida   Houston
Ricky Nolasco Player Wandy Rodriguez
Win W/L No Decision
8.0 IP 7.0
2 Strikeouts 2
8 Hits 8
2.25 ERA 1.29
Hitting
Florida   Houston
Logan Morrison Player J.R. Towles
3 Hits 3
1 RBI 1
0 HR 1
4 TB 6
.750 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Florida 14 1 20 .368 15 2 4 0 0 0
Houston 10 2 18 .294 8 3 3 0 1 1