Marlins Streaking Toward Wild Card

The Florida Marlins drew their biggest crowd in more than two years -- and quickly gave the fans plenty to cheer about.

Miguel Cabrera capped a six-run first inning with a three-run homer, and the wild-card leaders won their seventh consecutive game by beating the Atlanta Braves, 8-3, Saturday night.

With Florida in a playoff race in September for the first time since 1997, the game attracted a crowd of 40,414, the Marlins’ largest since July 13, 2001, against the New York Yankees.

“They should come out every night,” winning pitcher Dontrelle Willis said. “I think they notice we’re playing good ball. I think they appreciate us, and we appreciate them.”

Staked to the big early lead, Willis (13-6) yielded eight hits but only two runs in six innings.

Florida is 2 1/2 games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card standings.

“There’s pressure on them,” Cabrera said. “If we keep playing like this, we can get there.”

The Marlins’ winning streak is their longest since Aug. 6-13, 1999, and they’re 18 games above .500 for the first time in six years. East Division leader Atlanta has lost three in a row and eight of 13 but still leads Florida by 8 1/2 games.

“We’ve been in this situation before,” said Javy Lopez, who hit his 40th home run. “We know how to get out of it. Tomorrow is a new day. You’ll see a different team out there.”

Lopez’s homer was his 39th as a catcher -- leaving him two shy of the major league record for catchers set by Todd Hundley of the New York Mets in 1996. Johnny Bench hit 45 homers for Cincinnati in 1970, but only 38 came while he was catching.

Russ Ortiz (19-7) was trying to become the league’s first 20-game winner. But the first five batters he faced scored. Juan Encarnacion hit a two-run single in the first and Cabrera’s 10th homer made it 6-0.

Ortiz yielded six hits and seven runs in three innings -- his shortest outing this season. He’s 2-2 with an earned-run average of 7.16 over his past six starts.