MIAMI -- After Nationals closer Jon Rauch blew a one-run lead in the ninth inning and then lost it in the 10th on Monday, manager Manny Acta said he'll take a situation like that every day because most of the time, it means his team will win the game.

Tuesday night provided a similar scenario.

Despite the Nationals putting up nine runs and their rookie pitcher, Collin Balester, pitching five innings of one-hit ball, the Marlins were right there in the ninth inning. But facing a 3-0 count on Luis Gonzalez with runners on first and second in a three-run game, Rauch battled back to make it a full count and then got the veteran outfielder to fly out, giving the Nationals a much-needed 9-6 win in front of 12,166 at Dolphin Stadium.

"He's a tough guy for us," Acta said. "He doesn't back down, he wasn't thinking about last night. He had to go through a tough part of the lineup there and to battle back from a 3-0 count and make that pitch. It says a lot about him, especially since he's throwing for the third straight day."

After Balester completed the fifth inning and the Nationals jumped out to a 6-1 lead thanks to a Ronnie Belliard grand slam in the top of the sixth, Acta told his 22-year-old righty, "There's no way we can blow this one for you."

He was almost wrong.

The Nationals' offense cranked out 15 hits -- their highest since they got 16 on June 5 against the Cardinals -- and five players had multi-hit games, but it almost wasn't enough.

After Balester allowed only one run in five innings, the Nationals' bullpen yielded five runs over the next three innings to give the Fish a fighting chance.

In the top of the eighth, the Nationals seemed to break the game open after Marlins first baseman Mike Jacobs fielded a sharp ground ball by Kory Castro with the bases loaded, but threw the ball away. From there, Felipe Lopez hit an RBI single -- his third hit of the night -- and Willie Harris followed with another RBI single to right to make it a 9-4 game.

But in the bottom half of that inning, Alfredo Amezaga and Hanley Ramirez -- who hit a three-run homer earlier in the game -- got RBI singles to make it a three-run game off Luis Ayala. The 30-year-old righty then struck out Jeremy Hermida with the bases loaded to end the inning and stop the bleeding before Rauch racked up his 17th save.

"Those last four innings seemed like it took about four hours," Balester said. "It was fun, though, to watch. Even me, I'm so happy to be here, and so happy to be in the big leagues."

In five innings, the 6-foot-5 righty gave up one hit while walking three and striking out three. Balester hadn't given up a hit until a leadoff single by Cody Ross in the fifth and left after tossing 95 pitches -- 54 for strikes. But Balester ran into a little trouble in the fifth.

That inning saw him walk opposing pitcher Mark Hendrickson on four straight pitches, face seven hitters and give the Marlins their first run. But Balester was able to work out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation with only one run across.

"He's got good stuff, it's just a matter of him harnessing it a little bit," said Paul Lo Duca, who finished the night 2-for-4 and was behind the plate mostly to ease Balester through his first start. "He's got an electric fastball and an electric curveball, and he's going to be a good pitcher for a long time."

After Belliard's second career grand slam made it a five-run game, the Marlins threatened off reliever Steven Shell in the bottom of the seventh. Before recording an out, Shell put runners on first and second, and Ramirez followed with a three-run shot to make it 6-4.

But Joel Hanrahan came in after that and retired three straight hitters -- which was all the Washington bullpen could hope to do off the Marlins' high-powered offense all night.

The Nationals are now 2-9 against the Marlins this season, but have won four of their last six games.

"We're playing well," Acta said. "I like the way we've been playing over the last five, six days. We lost a tough one last night, but we've been playing good baseball.

"We've been playing hard, and that's what I like them to do."