SCOUTING REPORT / FLORIDA : Marlin Blunders Lead to 5-2 Loss

The Florida Marlins are the youngest team in the league, and on Sunday they showed their age on defense.

Matt Clement gave up two runs in 6 1/3 innings and the San Diego Padres scored two runs on bunts in the fifth inning to defeat the Marlins, 5-2.

“This was a miserable game for us,” Marlin Manager John Boles said. “If you get beat, fine, but it hurts more when you beat yourself. We were lousy. We went back to baby steps.”

Clement (7-12) has only two victories in his last 12 outings, both against the Marlins. Clement, who defeated Florida, 6-4, on Aug. 14, gave up five hits and three walks, striking out five.

“We’ve been on the other side of it a lot this year, where anything that can go wrong, goes wrong,” Clement said. “We’ve just been on the wrong side of everything of late since the All-Star break and it’s nice to get a win. I’m just happy I was able to keep the team in the game and get it.”

The Padres broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth on two unearned runs.

With one out, Ben Davis struck out but reached first on a passed ball by rookie catcher Ramon Castro, who was crossed up by the pitch.

Chris Gomez singled to right. Clement bunted, but Marlin starter Vladimir Nunez (6-7) held on to the ball too long. Finally, he fired it to third, but Chris Clapinski, who was only a few feet from Nunez, dropped the ball for an error and Davis scored.

“He got too close and then threw a rocket,” Boles said.

Damian Jackson, a last-minute replacement for an ailing Quilvio Veras, dropped a squeeze bunt toward first. Nunez picked it up, but no one covered first base as second baseman Luis Castillo froze on the play. Gomez scored to put the Padres up, 3-1.

“That was a squeeze,” Jackson said. “I knew that everyone was going to be crashing and I just tried to put the ball where they couldn’t react. I thought that if I put it in the right spot, we could kill two birds with one stone.”