Examiner.com

The Marlins’ minor-league prospects scored seven runs in the last two innings against the weak underbelly of the Washington Nationals pitching staff, turning a close game into a 10-4 rout Thursday in their Grapefruit League opener.

Outfielder Bryan Petersen, who played last season for the Marlins’ Double-A team in Jacksonville, got the Marlins on the board with a home run leading off the fourth inning to tie the score at 1. The Nationals had taken the lead off Marlins starter Anibel Sanchez on Jerry Owens’ two-out RBI single.

Sanchez allowed two singles and a walk in two innings of work, but each of the Nationals’ three base runners took advantage of his slow delivery to the plate by stealing second.

Marlins regulars Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla and Cody Ross each went 0-for-3, but the prospects picked them up.

Peterson got his second RBI when the Marlins took a 3-1 lead in the fifth off former Yankees reliever Brian Bruney. Wes Helms walked and went to third on Ronny Paulino’s double. Pinch-hitter Mike Lamb singled to score Helms for the go-ahead run. After Emilio Bonifacio, who had already struck out twice, popped out weakly to short center field, Petersen hit a grounder to second and hustled to beat out a double-play relay so Paulino could score.

The Marlins scored four runs in the seventh off Nationals prospect Luis Atilano and three more in the eighth off veteran reliever Ron Villone, who walked three and hit one among six batters he faced.

Donnie Murphy, trying to win a spot on the Marlins’ roster after missing most of 2009 with an injury while with Baltimore’s Triple-A team, hit two-run singles in both the seventh and eighth innings.

Logan Morrison, one of the Marlins’ top prospects, hit a two-run triple in the seventh and drove in another run with a ground out in the eighth.

The Marlins’ mega-prospect, 20-year-old Mike Stanton, also got his first at-bat of the spring, lining a pinch-hit single off Atilano leading off the seventh.