Brewers Extend Mastery of Marlins

Baseball’s worst team again brought out the best in the Milwaukee Brewers.

Scott Karl pitched eight shutout innings and David Nilsson’s seventh-inning homer broke a scoreless tie Wednesday to help Milwaukee beat the Florida Marlins for the 12th consecutive time, 2-0.

Milwaukee remained unbeaten against Florida since moving to the National League last year. The Brewers are 9-0 at Miami, including this week’s three-game series.

“No offense to the Marlins,” Karl said, “but if we played 162 games here, we’d have a shot at the postseason.”

The Brewers have swept four series against the Marlins, outscoring them, 76-35.

“Things are strange sometimes,” Milwaukee Manager Phil Garner said. “You can’t explain it, because they’re a decent ballclub.”

Actually, the Marlins are awful. They’ve lost eight games in a row and finished 2-11 on their longest homestand of the season.

AROUND THE LEAGUE / Phillies Send Spoljaric North

When the Philadelphia Phillies acquired left-hander Paul Spoljaric from the Seattle Mariners last November, they heard almost immediately from the Toronto Blue Jays.

On Wednesday, they finally struck another deal, Spoljaric heading to Toronto in a trade that brought reliever Robert Person to the Phillies.

Spoljaric, 28, struggled in all three of his starts this season, going 0-3 with a 21.13 earned-run average. He has a 15.09 ERA overall, including one relief appearance.

“Maybe we overevaluated or overprojected him,” Phillie General Manager Ed Wade said. “We tried to get something out of him and it just didn’t work out.”

Person, a 29-year-old right-hander, is 0-2 with a 9.82 ERA in 11 games.