WASHINGTON -- The Washington Nationals are trying to stay in the playoff race. Pitching performances like this one will surely help. Ross Ohlendorf pitched neatly into the sixth inning, Ian Desmond had three hits and the Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 2-1 on Tuesday night. "Nothing like a little laugher," Nationals manager Davey Johnson cracked. Washington kicked off a six-game homestand with its sixth victory in the last seven games. The Nationals began the day eight games behind Cincinnati for the second NL wild-card spot. Ohlendorf (3-0) pitched five innings of two-hit ball before Christian Yelich led off the sixth with his second homer, ending the starters outing. It was Ohlendorfs second start since he was sidelined by right shoulder inflammation. "Hes done that now several times," Johnson said when asked if Ohlendorf hit a wall in the sixth, when his velocity was noticeably lower. "I was kind of ready for it with (Tanner) Roark. He just kind of ran out gas like he did the game before." Roark, Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard each pitched a hitless inning before Rafael Soriano finished the four-hitter for his 34th save. Roark pitched out of trouble in the sixth after walking Giancarlo Stanton and Logan Morrison with one out. Clippard handled the top of Miamis order in the eighth, including three straight swinging strikes against the dangerous Stanton. "I just wanted to get ahead of him and once I threw strike one I wanted to go after him because he was going to be aggressive," Clippard said. "Thats what I did, and he chased a couple of fastballs and I got him." Yelich finished with two hits for Miami, which has lost six of seven. Nathan Eovaldi (2-5) allowed two runs -- both in the first -- and eight hits in six innings. "I thought Eovaldi looked good, he pitched a good game, he gave us a chance to win," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. "The bullpen did a nice job and really had it laid out perfectly. Just didnt score the runs. Four hits, weve kind of seen this story before a few times this year." The Washington victory came in the opener of a stretch of 19 consecutive games against the Marlins, Mets and Phillies, all NL East teams below .500. "Nows the time," Johnson said before the game. "I still think we need to win close to 90 games (to make the playoffs). So every game we need to play well, we need to pitch well." Ohlendorf and the bullpen took care of the pitching, and the lineup did just enough damage in the first. Ryan Zimmerman and Bryce Harper had consecutive one-out singles, putting runners on the corners. Zimmerman scored on Jayson Werths groundout and Desmond singled in Harper to make it 2-0. "Just ran into some trouble in that first inning," said Eovaldi, who is 0-5 with a 4.30 ERA in his last eight starts. "And if I can just avoid that one inning here and there, I feel like Id be a lot better off." Washington totalled seven baserunners after the first, but couldnt add to its run total. All nine Nationals hits were singles. Ohlendorf retired his first nine batters before Yelich singled to start the fourth. Stanton then doubled with one out and Logan Morrison was walked intentionally to load the bases. Ohlendorf then fanned Ed Lucas and got Justin Ruggiano to ground into a fielders choice, ending the threat. "He was great. He made pitches. He threw some good breaking balls," Johnson said. NOTES: Denard Span and Harper extended their hitting streaks to 10 and nine games, respectively. ... The Nationals recalled RHP Ryan Mattheus from Triple-A Syracuse and optioned LHP Xavier Cedeno to their top farm club. ... Redmond said RHP Jose Fernandez has two or three starts remaining before the club shuts the 21-year-old down. Fernandez has thrown 152 2-3 innings and could approach his team-imposed 170-inning limit during his next two starts. ... Johnson said an X-ray of LF Harpers left foot was negative after he fouled a ball off his leg on Sunday. ... Johnson said "probably not" when asked if LHP Ross Detwiler, on the DL since early July with a back strain, will return before the end of the season. Detwiler has begun playing catch, but hasnt thrown off the mound. ... The Marlins reinstated INF Placido Polanco from the 7-day concussion DL. ... Miami RHP Henderson Alvarez (2-3, 3.86 ERA) opposes Stephen Strasburg (6-9, 3.00 ERA) in Wednesdays game. Nike Air Max 97 On Sale . No surprise there. Kershaw, who also earned the title after throwing his first career no-hitter in June, had a 1. 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He could have transferred when academic sanctions barred the Huskies from the NCAA tournament his junior season.OWINGS MILLS, Md. - The Ravens head to Indianapolis Sunday for a meeting with the NFLs top-scoring offence a€” a big reason the Baltimore defence will once again focus hard on eliminating the big play.Quarterback Andrew Luck has guided the Colts to a league-best 136 points through four games even though the Colts are 2-2. The Ravens have played more consistently on defence this season en route to their 3-1 record, but the big plays are coming with less frequency, something Ravens coach John Harbaugh likes.Harbaugh said if not for some of the big plays his team did give up early, theyd be the NFLs top defence.Weve made it a big point of emphasis to eliminate those, Harbaugh said. Were still working on doing that, which I think shows you how hard it is sometimes to get better at things. Weve got to keep working on that and hold on to the other things were doing well at the same time.The Ravens have given up five touchdowns overall in the first four games, second-fewest in the NFL. Baltimores also given up an average of 15 points per game, and thats tied for second-least in the NFL.The defence is good, linebacker Terrell Suggs said. Would we like it a little bit better? Absolutely. We have not peaked until we can get as good as we can get it.The RRavens have been just about as good as they can get in the red zone, as opposing teams scored touchdowns on just three of 11 trips inside the 20-yard line.ddddddddddddThats 27.3 percentage a€” tops in the NFL.But all parts of the defence are going to be tested this week because Luck and the Colts are dangerous in so many ways.Indianapolis is averaging 444 yards per game, 326 passing and 118 more on the ground. Thats why the defence knows this has to be a week of limiting both mistakes and big plays.I think this is probably the best offence we have to face so far, cornerback Jimmy Smith said. They have a ton of receivers that can get open, get the ball and score. Everybody has to be on their game this week. Everybody has to know exactly what were doing, and we cant let (any) balls go over our head.Thats where the big plays come from. Luck knows how to create them, but the Ravens need to keep the third-year quarterback and his offence under control, another big test for this defence.Any success in this league is tremendous, Suggs said. You just want to keep the success going. We definitely arent satisfied.we want to continue to work so we can get as good as we can get.___AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL ' ' '