Marlins blow 9-0 lead, give up 14 unanswered runs to Nats

TheWashington Nationals are far from finished. Not after briefly slipping below .500 this week. And, certainly not after spotting the Miami Marlins the first nine runs on Thursday night.

Trea Turner hit two homers, including his first career grand slam, and drove in eight runs to helpWashington rally pastMiami14-12 in a wild slugfest to end a five-game losing streak.

“Not to get ahead of ourselves, put together wins, try to win a series,” first baseman Matt Adams said. “I think that’s what we’re going to focus on from here on out, win two out of three, win three out of four. If that’s the case, then the wins will start stacking on top of each other and we’ll just get rolling the way we’re capable of.”

The Nationals, who dropped17 of their previous 22, havewon 12 consecutive games against Miami dating to last season — their longest winning streak against any teamsince the franchise moved to Washington in 2005.

It was also the largest comeback victory since the team leftMontreal. TheNationals rallied from eight runs down to defeat Atlanta 13-12 on April 28, 2015.

The victory came a day after the Nationals called a players-only meeting Wednesday after Washington was swept by Boston and slipped under .500 for the first time sinceMay 2.

But things didn’t start smoothly.

Miami scored an unearned run in the first, and capped a six-run second on Martin Prado’s three-run homer off the left-field foul pole. The Marlins made it 9-0 on Justin Bour’s tworun homer in the fourth off JeremyHellickson.

Despite the huge deficit, Washington was far from out of it.

Turner led off the fourth with a solo shot offMarlins starter Pablo Lopez, who surrendered four more runs in the fifth — including two on Juan Soto’s double. Adam Conley (2-1) then allowed four of the first five hitters he faced to reach in the sixth before Turner smacked a two-out fastball with the bases loaded into Miami’s bullpen to give the Nationals a stunning 10-9 lead.

Turner added a two-run single inWashington’s fourrun seventh. His eight RBI tied for the most ever by a leadoff hitter, according to STATS LLC.