MIAMI -- Marlins starter Tom Koehler got back on track Thursday afternoon.
The right-hander went five innings and allowed just two hits and one run, a first-inning solo homer to Bryce Harper, and finished strong. Koehler recorded the final 12 outs without allowing a hit as the Marlins cruised to a 5-1 win at Marlins Park to gain a split of the four-game series.
Koehler (1-2) pitched well in his first outing this season, going 6 1/3 at Washington. And though he suffered the loss, Koehler gave up just two runs on eight hits, striking out six. But he faltered in his last outing, yielding five runs to Atlanta on nine hits over 3 2/3 innings.
But Koehler bounced back on Thursday, striking out five and walking just one -- although he hit two batters. Koehler threw 85 pitches, 49 for strikes, and said he could have gone deeper into the game.
"To me, I want to pitch until I can't," Koehler said. "I'll never question a manager's call because he's the one that's got to make those decisions. I respect [manager Don Mattingly], and I respect everything he's done since he's been here and in his baseball life. So if he felt that was best for the team, then it was."
However, Koehler has been the workhorse for Miami the last two seasons.
"Personally, I take a lot of pride in pitching deep into games and I would have loved to have kept going because I felt good," he said. "But at the same time, I understand we had a bunch of lefties [coming up] there and we needed this ballgame. So it was a big team win."
Craig Breslow, Kyle Barraclough, David Phelps and closer A.J. Ramos combined for four innings of no-hit relief. In fact, each worked one inning without allowing a baserunner.