Marlins squander three leads
WASHINGTON — The Marlins and Nationals, two teams riding the shifting tide of baseball fortune, have been stealthily climbing the National League East standings after early struggles.
Getting swept in Miami got the Nationals’ attention.
The opponent the Marlins faced at Nationals Park to open a 10-game trip Monday has lately looked much more like the World Series favorite widely forecast than the wayward bunch that stumbled through three losses at Marlins Park just over a week ago amid a six-game losing streak.
Still, the Marlins were positioned to make it four in a row over their division rival, but the bullpen let them down in the late innings.
Yunel Escobar’s careerhigh fifth hit of the game, a two-run single with two outs, capped a four-run, eighth-inning rally against Marlins reliever Bryan Morris and sent the Nationals to a 6-4 victory.
Three times the Marlins took leads, and each time they were unable to maintain the advantage through the bottom of the same inning.
“You can’t go on the road and cough up leads. That’ll cost you. We had some walks late in the game that came back to haunt us,” Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. “That’s too bad because we knew we weren’t going to get a lot. But we battled and got some timely hits, some great at-bats. But tonight we just couldn’t hold them off.”
Jeff Baker’s pinch-hit, RBI-single put Miami ahead with two outs in the top of the eighth, and Ichiro Suzuki drove in another with an infield hit.
But Ian Desmond’s tworun homer off Morris tied the game for the third time and set the stage for Escobar. Morris gave up four hits and a walk in the disastrous inning.
A leadoff walk to Ryan Zimmerman started the trouble.
“I put myself in a bind when I walked the first hitter. Made a really bad pitch [to Desmond] and it went over the fence. Then after that I left other balls up and they found holes as well,” Morris said. “Definitely [pitch] location. I left the ball up in the zone and over the plate. That’s usually what happens. I made a mistake and I paid for it.”
The previous inning, Justin Bour, from nearby Centreville, Va., provided a short-lived lead with an opposite-field homer off Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann. Bour hit a 3-2 fastball that barely reached the bleachers in left field.
But for the second time, David Phelps gave it right back in the bottom of the inning. Jason Werth tied it with a run-scoring single off Sam Dyson, who leads the majors in allowing eight inherited runners to score. It was charged to Phelps, who walked the final batter he faced, pinch hitter Clint Robinson.
“If I don’t walk that guy, we’re not in that situation,” Phelps said. “Regardless of what the bullpen does, if I do my job and get that guy out, we’ve got two outs with the top of their lineup up. It’s a completely different story. I fault myself, if anything.”
Phelps matched Marlins’ nemesis Zimmermann for nearly seven innings in a solid effort, as he allowed two runs and six hits in 6 innings.
Zimmermann was 7-3 in 18 previous starts against Miami, including a no-hitter in last season’s finale. The Marlins scored twice against him in seven innings, including Bour’s second big-league homer —first this season.
The Nationals came in with a string of 18 consecutive scoreless innings after back-to -back 1-0 wins against the Mets in New York.
The Marlins put that to rest with an unearned run in the first on Marcell Ozuna’s RBI single, scoring Martin Prado, who returned from a day off with a single. He moved into scoring position when Werth dropped Giancarlo Stanton’s liner in left.
Phelps gave the run back in the bottom of the inning on Ryan Zimmerman’s sacrifice fly after two singles and a walk loaded the bases.