The Nationals quickly lost their early game momentum they had after falling to the Marlins, 8-7, in game two of the three game series.
It was all false hope for Nationals fans early on in Miami. James Wood got things started for the Nationals. At seven pitches in, Wood found his sweet spot on a 86 mph slider as he homered the ball 442 feet to right center to give the Nationals the first lead of the game.
James Wood celebrates after his lead off home run in the first inning.
That momentum would carry the Nationals throughout the first inning. Luis Garcia Jr. singled to center, trailed by Brady House’s double to left, pushing Garcia to third. With no outs, the Nats were looking to keep things rolling offensively and they did just that.
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CJ Abrams was able to send a single down to right that would tack on two more runs for the Nationals with Garcia and House securing home. After just four batters in, the Nats found themselves with an early 3-0 lead over the Marlins to close out the first inning.
With performance continuing to shift for the better on both sides of the ball, the Nationals demonstrated the strong defensive efforts they have been working on as they prevented the Marlins from earning a first inning run.
After Marlins Liam Hicks walked and Kyle Stowers doubled to right, Hicks thought he had enough room to make it home. After Woods throws to Nasim Nuñez there’s more than enough power behind Nuñez’s throw to get Hicks thrown out at home by a landslide to close out the first with the Marlins scoreless.
The third inning displayed Abrams’ speed. What looked like it was going to be a homer was just shy of making it over the wall. But it wasn’t an issue for Abrams as the ball dropped just enough for the ball to get lost for the Marlins defense which allowed for Abrams to haul himself all the way to third. Daylen Lile’s sacrifice fly to center still gave enough room for Abrams to earn the run to put the Nationals up 4-0 with still over half of the ballgame remaining.
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However the Marlins were finally able to get themselves on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning. Stowers homered 380 feet to right off of Nats relief pitcher Zach Littell’s 83 mph splitter to give the Marlins the two run home run and close in on the Nationals lead, 4-2.
The Marlins were persistent though as they continued to slowly creep in on their deficit. In the bottom of the sixth the Marlins were able to earn another run to put them one run shy of tying the Nationals as they closed out the inning 4-3.
Marlins Xavier Edwards erased the four run deficit after tying the Nationals 4-4 courtesy of the homer he sent 422 feet to left center in the bottom of the seventh.
Slowly, the Nationals started to crumble and the odds of earning a win were slipping away as their cushioned run advantage would soon be wiped away.
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The Marlins responded with eight unanswered runs to give them their first lead of the game. Marlins Marsee hits a three run home run to push the Marlins past the Nationals, 7-4, in the bottom of the eighth inning with zero outs.
The Marlins got themselves out of the deficit as they had eight unanswered runs. Half of those runs came from the eighth inning alone after Marlins Jakon Marsee hit a three-run home run that was quickly followed by Esteury Ruiz’s run.
With one more inning, the Nationals hoped to bounce back and secure the win. And it looked like that was going to happen. José Tena earned himself a run. Then Wood was able to double to send Drew Millas to third. Garica would follow and single to right which allowed Millas and Wood to score. Now it was up to Abrams to seal the deal with two outs and a runner on first. Unfortunately, a fly out by Abrams sealed the Nationals loss.
Richard Lovelady got his first start for the Nationals today. Before today’s game, Lovelady had 14 recorded games this season with a 2-1 record, a 2.40 ERA, 11 walks, 15 innings, and 14 strikeouts. Lovelady would go on to pitch two innings only surrendering one hit, and recording three strikeouts and zero runs.
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The Nationals headed into today’s game with the most first inning runs with 36 runs. They quickly found themselves adding to that statistics after earning three more runs in the first inning today. Abrams also looked to add to his personal statistics as he heads into today’s game with 36 RBI’s, as he currently leads the MLB in the RBI department.
The Nationals had the potential of having a .500 record for the first time since May of 2024 had they secured the win against Miami today. But mistakes and a struggling bullpen cost the Nationals late in Saturday’s game. Both Littell and Abrams earned the Nationals errors.
The Nationals will close out the three-game Marlins series tomorrow at 12:15 p.m. before heading to Cincinnati to take on the Reds.