Nats get Marlins monkey off their back to set up more successful season

MIAMI – The Nationals won 16 more games in 2023 than they did in 2022. Although that was an obvious improvement, they were careful not to label it a successful season. After all, 71 wins isn’t something to brag about.

The goal is to finish above .500. To get back to the playoffs. To win another championship.

Those are the successes the Nats are striving for this year and in the next couple of years.

The record comes first. With yesterday’s win over the Marlins to complete a four-game series mopping, the Nats are at .500 for the first time this late into a season since they were 40-40 entering July 2, 2021.

Some might try to poke fun at a team celebrating being 14-14. But you have to call it what it is: Progress.

“We came into this series after losing three games to the Dodgers, which I thought we could have won a couple of those games, but we bounced back,” manager Davey Martinez said. “And that's what I love about this team. We left it there. We showed up to Miami knowing that we struggled here in the past and we tried to take care of business on the first day. And we did that. We're playing really well right now. So I just want to continue to play the way we're playing. They're playing good heads-up baseball. They're having a lot of fun. And they're starting to swing the bats a lot better, which is awesome.”

Through 28 games in 2022, they were 9-19. They were 10-18 at this point last year. And they have set themselves up nicely to keep improving.

For whatever reason, the Nats really struggled against the Marlins over the past two seasons. They were a dreadful 6-26 against the Fish since 2022 coming into this year, including 2-11 last year with both of those wins coming at loanDepot Park. They were outscored by Miami 157-97 over those 32 games.

The new schedule format started last year, so division rivals only played each other 13 times instead of the usual 19. (On the flip side, that may have also helped the Nats improve their record by playing some bad teams in the American League they wouldn’t usually face.)

“When you think about it, you say 19 games. Just playing one team for 19 games is a lot,” Martinez said. “But when you're playing amongst your division, it really makes a big difference, those games. It's kind of fun playing everybody, it really is. You get to see different players, different guys that you've played with, different managers.”

To the Marlins’ credit, they weren’t a bad team last year. In fact, they were a pretty good team, going 84-78 and making the postseason as the second National League Wild Card before getting swept by the Phillies in two games.

But there were three teams within two games of a Wild Card spot by the end of the season. So had the Nats played the Marlins better, there would have been some serious ripple effects.

Last year, the Nats went 5-8 against the Braves, 5-14 against the Mets (still better than against the Marlins) and 6-7 against the Phillies. If they had played the Marlins closer to .500, let’s say 6-7 to be conservative, the Nats would have finished with the same 75-87 record as the Mets and the Marlins would have missed the playoffs at 80-82.

The Nats know it’s still a tough task to improve upon their record from last year, but winning within the division – especially against the now major league-worst Marlins – is a good place to start.

“Oh absolutely. You got to play really well (in the division),” Martinez said. “We play these teams a lot, so you got to play really well amongst your division. But like I said, I'm focused more on just going 1-0 today and we'll go from there.

“You got to win in your division. That's really the ultimate (goal). But it seems like right now everybody's beating up on each other. So we just gotta keep our heads high and continue to play the way we're playing.”