Following a promising series win over the rival New York Mets at Citi Field that snapped a stretch of seven consecutive series losses, the Marlins have immediately reverted to their losing ways. They dropped their second straight game to the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night, 5-2.
Fish On First’s No. 10 prospect Adam Mazur made his third start in a Marlins uniform, and it was arguably his most encouraging to date. The 24-year-old right-hander showed flashes of promise with each of the six pitches in his arsenal, but also experienced some growing pains against the last-place Nationals.
After retiring the side in the first, Mazur surrendered a pair of softly-hit doubles to Daylen Lile and Riley Adams that put Washington on the board. Jacob Young followed with a two-out RBI single to extend the lead to 2-0. Young, a career .247 hitter across three seasons with the Nationals, has now lifted his lifetime average against Miami to .417—earning himself the “Marlin Killer” label.
“His stuff, as a whole, looked good again tonight,” said manager Clayton McCullough. “They were able to find some grass on some balls and score some early runs.”
Lile struck again in the third with an RBI single that made it 3-0.
Miami’s bats, held scoreless the night before by one of the league’s weakest pitching staffs, were quiet again for much of Tuesday’s contest. The lone breakthrough came in the fourth when infielder Connor Norby—playing in just his fourth game since coming off the injured list—delivered a two-run single to cut the deficit to one.
Norby, who has struggled in his first full season with Miami, has shown some improvement since returning, going 5-for-14 since rejoining the club in New York. His base hit would account for all of the Marlins’ offense on the night against starter Cade Cavalli and the Nationals bullpen.
“We just missed too many fastballs and had too many empty at-bats,” McCullough said. “The times that we created some innings, we just haven’t come through. When we’re at our best, there’s more ‘pass the baton’ and more competitive at-bats one through nine. For whatever reason, the last couple days we haven’t done that.”
The Nationals immediately responded in the fifth, when All-Star James Wood crushed an opposite-field, two-run homer—his team-leading 27th of the season—to restore the cushion. It was the second home run Mazur has allowed since joining Miami and proved to be the decisive blow.
d4015426-91a0bafa-1773fc83-csvm-diamondgcp-asset_1280x720_59_4000K.mp4
To his credit, Mazur settled in and completed six innings for just the second time in his young career, the first coming in his major league debut with the Padres on June 4, 2024. His best sequence came in the sixth, when Washington put two runners in scoring position with one out. Facing the dangerous duo of Wood and CJ Abrams, Mazur struck out Wood and retired Abrams to escape unscathed.
In three starts with Miami, Mazur owns a 5.74 ERA across 15 ⅔ innings with 12 strikeouts against five walks.
“It was nice to see him get out of that jam there,” McCullough noted. “Good for him to go out there, leave those runners on base, and keep the game where it was to give us a chance.”
Due to recent injuries that have sidelined starters Edward Cabrera and Ryan Gusto, there is room for Mazur to potentially stick in the club’s rotation throughout September,
The Marlins never mounted another serious threat, as the Nationals bullpen closed the door with ease.
With the loss, Miami has now dropped eight of its last nine series, falling to 65-74 on the year. Washington improved to 55-83. The Marlins will look to salvage the finale on Wednesday afternoon behind young ace Eury Pérez.