Game 73 lineups: Nats at Marlins

You already know the Nationals have won 10 of 11 games. But did you know they've actually won nine games in a row that were scheduled to be nine innings? That's right, their last two losses came in doubleheader games that were scheduled for only seven innings (one of which turned into an eight-inning loss to the Giants). Their last nine-inning loss was June 11, the opener of their last homestand, when they lost 1-0 to San Francisco.

So there's a chance tonight to make it 10 in a row in scheduled nine-inning games, if the Nationals can get another quality start out of Jon Lester and score some runs off Pablo López.

Lester is coming off a very quality start last weekend against the Mets, when he carried a shutout into the seventh inning (of another one of those doubleheader games), but then gave up two quick runs and was pulled. Manager Davey Martinez doesn't necessarily need that from his veteran lefty tonight, because the bullpen is in pretty good shape now. But he'd certainly take six or more solid innings from Lester.

López is another good-looking, young member of the Marlins rotation who enters with a 2.86 ERA and 1.071 WHIP in 15 starts so far this season. He shut out the Nats over seven innings in their previous encounter season (April 30), a game that eventually ended on a Kyle Schwarber walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th. (Remember when Schwarber waited until the end of a game to hit the ball out of the park, instead of just doing it in the first at-bat of the game?)

Josh Bell isn't in the lineup again tonight, which isn't all that surprising. We'll hopefully get an update on the MRI Bell was due to get on his right side earlier today when Martinez meets with us on Zoom shortly.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at MIAMI MARLINS
Where: loanDepot Park
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN2, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Indoors

NATIONALS
LF Kyle Schwarber
SS Trea Turner
RF Juan Soto
1B Ryan Zimmerman
2B Josh Harrison
C Yan Gomes
3B Starlin Castro
CF Victor Robles
LHP Jon Lester

MARLINS
2B Jazz Chisholm Jr.
CF Starling Marte
1B Garrett Cooper
RF Adam Duvall
SS Miguel Rojas
LF Jesús Sánchez
C Jorge Alfaro
3B Jon Berti
RHP Pablo López