Nats go down quietly after big first inning in rare loss to Marlins (updated)

A Nationals club that has owned the Marlins this season looked ready to keep that trend going tonight when it stormed out to a quick three-run lead against an unheralded opposing starter while watching its own starter cruise along for six innings barely breaking a sweat along the way.

It’s not quite that simple to win ballgames in the major leagues, of course, no matter the quality of opponent. You still need to pitch well for nine innings, hit for more than one inning and play clean defense all night.

And the Nats did none of those things during what wound up a disheartening 6-3 loss to Miami.

Despite an at-times dominant start from Mitchell Parker and the aforementioned early three-run lead, the Nationals fell flat the rest of the way. They didn’t score again after the bottom of the first. They committed three errors, two of them directly leading to three unearned runs. And they didn’t get the outs they needed from Derek Law during a decisive top of the eighth that flipped the score in the Marlins’ favor.

All of which added up to only their second loss in 10 head-to-head games this season against the last-place Marlins, this one played before a sparse crowd of 13,299 on Thursday night in September.

"We came out swinging, scoring first," manager Davey Martinez said. "Then we stopped swinging. I don't know what to say. And our defense ... our defense today was not good. We've got to play better defense."

For only the second time, Martinez filled out a lineup card that began with the names CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews and James Wood. It’s a look the Nationals envision becoming the standard for years to come, if all three young building blocks live up to their potential.

They certainly did in the bottom of the first tonight. Each of them reached base to open the inning, and each of them came around to score to give their team a quick 3-0 lead.

Abrams got it all started with a leadoff double that missed becoming a leadoff homer by about three inches, then stole third. Crews followed with an infield single, busting down the line to beat Otto Lopez’s throw from short as Abrams scampered home. And Wood followed that by drawing a walk, with both Crews and Wood ultimately scoring on José Tena’s double to left to complete the three-run rally.

The Nationals appeared to be all over Darren McCaughan, a 28-year-old recent waiver claim making only his third career start. But they squandered several early opportunities to knock McCaughan from the game, stranding runners in scoring position in the first, second, third and fourth innings, then going the rest of the night without putting a man on base to allow the Marlins to keep this one close.

"Getting guys in with two outs, we should've done that a couple times," Crews said. "I know I had one in the (fourth inning). ... We just couldn't string anything together."

The game still remained close thanks to Parker’s pitching efforts, which were nearly flawless even though he did surrender a couple of (unearned) runs.

Parker didn’t let a first-inning error by Tena (his ninth in only 25 games at third base) faze him. But he could not simply brush off Abrams’ third-inning throwing error. Though the Marlins recorded only one hit that inning, they still found a way to score two runs via that error, a hit-by-pitch, two productive outs and then at last an RBI single by Jake Burger.

Parker cruised from that point on. He retired 11 of the last 13 batters he faced, never letting anyone else reach scoring position. For that, he could also thank Crews, who made a sensational catch in deep right-center, robbing Cristian Pache of a potential game-tying double with a sliding grab just before crashing into the wall.

"Honestly didn't think I had a shot at it off the bat," Crews said. "But going back, I was running and looked up and saw I had a shot. Kind of just stuck the glove out there and slid. I was honestly surprised that I caught it."

His pitch count still only 66, Parker was given the opportunity to take the mound for the seventh inning, the seventh time he’s done that in 27 big league starts. He didn’t finish the inning, giving way after a one-out infield single, but the length and efficiency the rookie displayed tonight were nothing to scoff at.

"I've been pressing the last couple starts, and that's just not who I am," said Parker, who allowed four runs a piece to the Cubs and Pirates prior to this outing. "We had a good conversation and worked on it this last week between starts. Came out for the game and just did what we normally do."

The lack of run support following the big first inning, though, left zero margin for error for the Nationals bullpen. And even though Law pulled off a brilliant, one-pitch double play to get out of the seventh, the veteran reliever had no such good fortune when he returned for the eighth.

Five straight batters reached against Law to begin the inning, with Xavier Edwards doubling, Jonah Bride delivering the game-tying single and Lopez getting credit for the go-ahead RBI on a bases-loaded grounder to short the Nats middle infield couldn’t turn into a 6-4-3 double play, two runs ultimately scoring on the play (with Luis García Jr. charged with an error) to leave the home team trailing for the first time all night.

An insurance run charged to Joe La Sorsa in the top of the ninth added to the Nationals’ deficit and served as the final stamp on this disappointing evening at the park.

"All these mistakes – and we talked about this before; we're in September – they're really mental," Martinez said. "Physically, these guys are good. They're just making mental mistakes. We've got to catch the ball before we throw it. We've got to be in position to catch the ball. And we've got to be in position to throw the ball. It's just not happening. That's got to be every day."