Hampton's hot streak put on ice

ATLANTA - Tuesday provided a perfect illustration of the danger that lurks in the Florida Marlins' lineup.

When faced with the most benign batting situation in baseball - none on and two out - Florida scored eight of its runs in an 11-6 victory against Atlanta at Turner Field before 22,299 fans.

"That's why there's three outs in an inning," said Braves starter Mike Hampton, who took his first loss of the year. "A lot of people can score runs with two outs."

A lot of Marlins did score in the third off Hampton (3-1), who hadn't allowed a big inning this season until Florida got to him with two down.

After Alex Gonzalez and pitcher Al Leiter flew out to left, things unraveled in a way that the Marlins are turning into their speciality - pesky speed at the top of the order, followed by a copious amount of power that never seems to cease.

Center fielder Juan Pierre's well-placed bunt between Hampton and third baseman Wilson Betemit resulted in a single to spark the inning. Luis Castillo singled, and then slugger Carlos Delgado drove both runners in with a double down the left-field line.

Delgado homered off Hampton in the fifth and doubled in the ninth to finish 3-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBI.

"He's a solid player," Hampton said. "It doesn't seem like lefties or righties affect him too much."

His supporting cast isn't so bad, either.

Miguel Cabrera, Juan Encarnacion and Paul Lo Duca continued the long inning with singles to plate three more runs.

By the end of the third, Hampton had given up five runs (four earned) and six hits - all with two out.

"So far this year I've been able to make the big pitch when I needed to," said Hampton, who had allowed only seven runs in his first five starts of the season. "I just couldn't come up with one and they made me pay for it in that inning."

"You get a quality team in like the Marlins and you kind of want to show them who's boss in the division, so to speak," Atlanta second baseman Marcus Giles said. "We didn't do that tonight."

Reach Travis Haney at travis.haney@morris.com.