Pitching ill, Hellickson rocked by Marlins (Nats win 14-12)

For all the attention lavished upon Wednesday's postgame players meeting, the only thing that really matters for the Nationals is that they start hitting, pitching and catching the ball significantly better than they have been in weeks.

They haven't been doing any of those things well so far tonight in what felt like a must-win game at the outset.

One day after players held a 15-minute meeting following a series sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, the Nationals put themselves in a nine-run hole to the Marlins with their worst performance of the season to date.

Jeremy Hellickson took the brunt of the punishment, charged with eight earned runs in four innings. The veteran right-hander, who was feeling ill entering the game but made his scheduled start anyway, gave up nine hits with a walk and a hit batter. He also served up two home runs: a three-run shot by Martin Prado in the second, then a two-run shot by Justin Bour in the fourth.

Hellickson, though, didn't get a lot of help from his defense. Daniel Murphy (making his second start of the season at second base) couldn't get to Derek Dietrich's hard grounder to his right to begin the game. Anthony Rendon booted what should've been an inning-ending grounder to third later in the top of the first.

The Nationals lineup, meanwhile, was nearly nonexistent in its first three innings against Marlins right-hander Pablo López (making his second career start). Matt Adams' second-inning single represented their lone baserunner through three innings.

Trea Turner did lead off the fourth with a homer to right-center, but that merely trimmed the deficit to 9-1.

Even though Jefry Rodriguez was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse to serve as an emergency backup to Hellickson if the latter wasn't feeling well, Hellickson was left on the mound for a full four innings, even after the game was out of hand. He wound up throwing 75 pitches and saw his ERA skyrocket from 2.63 to 3.81.

Update: Well, this game isn't quite over yet. The Nats have scored five unanswered runs and have gotten it down to 9-5 in the middle of the sixth. There's still a long way to go, but if Dan Uggla shows up with some chocolate syrup before the game ends, there might just be hope yet.

Update II: Like I said, this game isn't quite over yet. In fact, the Nationals now lead this game. Seriously. It's 10-9 after they scored five runs in the sixth, capped up by Turner's grand slam. The largest comeback in club history was eight runs. That came in Atlanta in April 2015, best known as The Dan Uggla Game. If they can now hold on and pull this one off, this will be the new club record.

Update III: Have you ever seen a team trail by nine runs and then score 14 unanswered runs? I don't believe I ever had ... until tonight. It's 14-9 Nats after seven. Unreal.

Update IV: Hold the phone, it ain't over yet. Justin Miller opened the eighth putting two men on base. Kelvin Herrera then entered and immediately served up a three-run homer to Brian Anderson. So the Nats' lead is down to 14-12 as they move to the bottom of the eighth.

Update V: They did it. They actually did it. Down 9-0 in the fourth inning, the Nats came back to win 14-12. It's the largest comeback in club history. And boy did they need it.