WASHINGTON (AP) – These young Florida Marlins are having fun before games and during them, too.

Josh Willingham’s four hits included a homer, fellow rookie Dan Uggla added a two-run shot and Florida beat the Washington Nationals 9-6 Thursday night.

Another rookie, shortstop Hanley Ramirez, made a leaping grab of pinch-hitter Alex Escobar’s liner up the middle with two runners on for the final out.

The Marlins led 4-0 and 6-2, then allowed the Nationals to bat around in a four-run seventh against relievers Sergio Mitre and Brian Moehler (6-8) that tied the game.

But Florida went back up thanks to two runs in the eighth off Ryan Wagner (0-1). Willingham led off with a single, Miguel Olivo also singled and Wes Helms delivered a two-run double.

The Marlins are the youngest club in the majors, and they’ve used 21 rookies this season; six were in the starting lineup Thursday. Before games, they seem to be a loose bunch, laughing loudly as a dozen watch “Along Came Polly” on the clubhouse TV or cracking each other up while stretching on the field.

A loss to Tampa Bay on May 21 dropped them to 11-31, but since then the Marlins have gone 42-30, a .583 winning percentage that has them in third place in the NL East, ahead of perennial division champion Atlanta.

Another rookie, Anibal Sanchez – part of the trade that sent Josh Beckett to the Red Sox – limited Washington to two runs on five hits, although he walked the first three batters he faced. A popup and 5-4-3 double play got him out of the first inning, drawing boos from the crowd of 21,304.

It was an extension of the problems the Nationals have been having with men on base: They were 4-for-35 (.114) with runners in scoring position in their previous four games, including 1-for-14 on Wednesday.

But Washington got to Sanchez in the fifth, when Alfonso Soriano hit his 36th homer, pausing to admire the shot. Consecutive singles put runners on the corners, and Nick Johnson’s sacrifice fly made it 4-2.

Florida tacked on two more runs in the seventh, though, when reliever Travis Hughes hit pinch-hitter Cody Ross and gave up a two-run homer to Uggla. It was Uggla’s 18th of the season, the second-most for a rookie in Marlins history. Hughes also threw a wild pitch and plunked Miguel Cabrera on the left elbow.

Washington’s big seventh began against Mitre, in his first appearance since coming off the disabled list. He threw 12 pitches – all balls. He went to a 3-0 count on Soriano, then hit him, and proceeded to walk Felipe Lopez and Ryan Zimmerman on four pitches apiece.

That was it for Mitre, but things didn’t get any better for the Marlins when Moehler entered. Johnson greeted him with a two-run single, and two outs later, Brian Schneider hit an RBI single, followed by pinch-hitter Daryle Ward’s run-scoring double, making it 6-all.

Despite all that, Moehler earned the win with his two innings of work. Joe Borowski pitched the ninth for his 24th save.

Nationals starter Pedro Astacio gave up four runs on eight hits over six innings. Joe Borchard and rookie Reggie Abercrombie drove in runs in the second inning, Willingham hit his 17th homer in the fourth, and Cabrera’s RBI single in the fifth made it 4-0.

The Marlins could have had more. In the third, Uggla singled and Cabrera smacked a sinking liner to left. But Soriano ran in to make a shoetop catch, then threw the ball to first to beat Uggla back to the bag for a double play – the ex-infielder’s major league-leading 19th outfield assist of the season.

Notes: Wagner, acquired from the Reds last month, has a 13.50 ERA with Washington. … The Marlins rookie record for homers is 26, by Preston Wilson in 1999.