Nationals make Eovaldi work in first (Marlins come back for 7-6 stunner)

The Nationals did not waste any time getting on the board against Marlins right-hander Nathan Eovaldi. In the first, following a Denard Span pop out, Anthony Rendon singled and went to second on a Jayson Werth walk. After a wild pitch, runners were on second and third base. Adam LaRoche followed with a line drive out to deep center, which scored Rendon from third, and the Nationals led 1-0. Right-hander Jordan Zimmermann was able to get the Marlins down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first. He struck out Giancarlo Stanton on a 3-2 count to end the frame. The Nationals lead 1-0 after one inning in South Florida. Update: Both pitchers are starting to take control, especially Zimmermann. He has allowed only one hit, a Casey McGehee single in the second. But that is it as McGehee has been the only Marlins base runner. Zimmermann has a strike out in every inning. Eovaldi allowed a LaRoche single in the fourth, but that was wiped away when Ian Desmond grounded into a double play. The Nationals lead 1-0 after four innings. Update II: It is almost like a Bryce Harper defensive play helped ignite the offense. In the bottom of the fifth with two outs, Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled to left field. Harper quietly pick up the ball and then went slow to hyper fast in a split second, firing the ball in to LaRoche. The first baseman then relayed the ball to Rendon who tagged out Saltalamacchia to end the inning. Just like that. In the top of the sixth, Span, Rendon and Werth earned base hits and the Nationals lead was 2-0 following Werth's RBI single. Span's started the inning with a bunt single. Following a LaRoche line out, Desmond walked to load the bases with one away. That ended Eovaldi's night. Reliever Dan Jennings replaced him. Harper reached on a throwing error that scored a run to make it 3-0. Wilson Ramos walked in a run and it was 4-0. Danny Espinosa had the biggest hit of the inning, a two-run single, and the Nationals lead 6-0 as the game moves to the bottom of sixth. Update III: Werth left the game after appearing to twist his right ankle at second base in the seventh. He attempted to stretch a single into a double and was tagged out on the play. Nate McLouth replaced him in right field to start the bottom of the seventh. After a Giancarlo Stanton walk in the seventh, Garrett Jones tripled past a diving McLouth and the Marlins got on the board, trailing 6-1. Marcell Ozuna then added a RBI single and the Nationals lead was 6-2 at the end of seven innings. Update IV: Ross Detwiler replaced Zimmermann to start the eighth inning. Detwiler allowed back-to-back singles to Adeiny Hechavarria and Reed Johnson to begin the inning. Two outs later Hechavarria scored to cut the Nats' lead to 6-3. Drew Storen then came on with two outs to strike out Stanton. Zimmermann pitched seven innings, allowed four hits, two earned runs, walked one and struck out six. We head to the top of the ninth. Update V: Rafael Soriano came on in the ninth to get three outs. Soriano arrived with 11 straight scoreless innings against the Marlins. But he walked McGehee to begin the inning. Jones then delivered a double to place two men in scoring position. Ozuna dropped a single into right-center and the Nationals led 6-4 with nobody out. Saltalamacchia contributed a sacrifice fly to deep right field to score Jones and the Nationals advantage, which was once 6-0, is now 6-5. Hechavarria added a run-scoring triple and Ozuna scored to tie the game 6-6. Soriano was tagged with a blown save. After hitting Donovan Solano with a pitch, Soriano was replaced by left-hander Jerry Blevins. With men on first and third and still one out, Christian Yelich swung and missed on a curveball for strike three. But Jeff Baker doubled off the wall to score Hechavarria from third to lift the Marlins to a stunning 7-6 comeback win over the Nationals. They scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth. The Marlins notched eight hits in their last three at-bats, scoring all seven of their runs after the sixth frame.