Poteet pounded as record plummets to 12 games under .500
Kyle Schwarber homered twice, raising his season total to 21 by hitting 12 in his past 13 games, and the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 7-3 on Thursday night for their 10th win in 11 games.
Schwarber led off the first by pulling a hanging curveball from Cody Poteet (2-3) to right for his fifth leadoff home run this season.
Josh Harrison singled with one out in the second, Victor Robles walked, and with two outs Schwarber sent a 0-2 fastball over the wall in center for a 4-0 lead.
Schwarber became the first player in major-league history to homer 11 times in a 13-game span from the No. 1 slot in the batting order, according to STATS. He became the fourth player with eight home runs and 15 RBIs in a five-game span, joining Shawn Green, Manny Ramirez and Frank Howard.
“When he’s like that, you don’t say much to him,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “You let him go out there and play the game and let him get his swings.
“He’s been awesome getting us going. He’s knocked in some big runs for us. Hopefully he’s hot for a while.”
Juan Soto added the first of his two RBI doubles later in the inning.
Joe Ross (4-7) allowed four hits in seven scoreless inning, helping Washington extend its winning streak to five.
Poteet gave up five runs, six hits and four walks in three innings. The 26-year-old rookie righthander is 0-3 in his last four starts after going 2-0 in his first three big-league outings.
“I just haven’t been sharp,” Poteet said. “Definitely not the start you want.”
Miami has lost four straight, scoring five runs during the slide.
“The five early [runs] obviously hurt us,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “The way we’ve been swinging the bats, it doesn’t put you in a good spot.”