Two beleaguered pitching staffs had no-hitters through four innings, but Washington’s bullpen eventually faltered in a 7-3 loss.
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The Miami Marlins went with a bullpen game Tuesday, their only option with a battered pitching staff. The Washington Nationals used Richard Lovelady, who blew Monday’s series opener, as an opener, followed by veteran Miles Mikolas for a bulk appearance, their most promising combination given their roster construction and arms available.
Surprisingly, that combination led to dueling no-hitters through four innings. But the Marlins finally broke through with four runs in the fifth, and that was all they would need to deal the Nationals a second straight 7-3 loss and take the series.
Manager Blake Butera let Lovelady face nine batters, tying a season high, because the Marlins’ lineup construction. Four of the top five hitters were righties, but Nos. 6 through 9 were lefties, so Butera wanted his southpaw to get through the order at least once before turning it over to Mikolas.
Lovelady ended up giving the Nationals (31-31) two innings. He walked the bases loaded in the second but escaped by catching Joe Mack looking on a sweeper.
In the bottom of the second, Lake Bachar walked Daylen Lile. That would be the only base runner for either team until the top of the fifth inning.
Mikolas’s velocity was up, his four-seam fastball touching 97 mph for the first time this season. He was looking as sharp as the Nationals have seen him, until Mack pounced on a first-pitch sinker and sent it 410 feet to center for a two-run homer. Heriberto Hernández and Otto Lopez followed with solo shots, and in the span of three batters, a promising outing for Mikolas turned into a 4-0 Marlins lead.
“The ball kind of started floating up on me,” Mikolas said. “Everything felt really good, felt like I had one of the better fastballs I probably had in the last couple of years. … When I can keep the ball down, I’m really successful. Once I start to float up to that thigh, belt area with those fastballs, big league hitters are going to hit that.”
The Nationals, meanwhile, still couldn’t get anything going against the Marlins’ bullpen. They finally caught a break in the sixth when a liner from Drew Millas dropped in shallow right field for their first hit of the day.
Millas advanced to second on a bloop single from Jacob Young, then to third on a flyout from James Wood. But he slid hard into the bag, colliding with Marlins third baseman Leo Jiménez. He left the game with a left upper lip laceration and received three stitches. Keibert Ruiz replaced Millas and got the Nationals on the board after Luis García Jr. grounded into a forceout.
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The Nationals picked up even more momentum in the seventh. With two men on, Dylan Crews fisted a 27.1-mph grounder to third, and Jiménez’s throw to first was well off the mark, allowing CJ Abrams to score from second. Two batters later, Ruiz’s groundout drove in Daylen Lile and made it 4-3.
With Crews at third, Butera pinch-hit José Tena for Young, opting to go with a slight offensive advantage over defense with two outs and the tying run at third. Tena struck out, quashing the opportunity, and he had to play the rest of the game in right field.
“When you’re down, we’re obviously playing for the matchup offensively,” Butera said. “When we’re ahead, we like JY in the outfield running balls down. We had to take a shot there to sacrifice a little bit of defense to hopefully make up some offense.”
The Nationals found themselves in striking distance again in the bottom of the eighth after García — the third-slowest player on the roster — hit his team-leading third triple of the season. Washington still couldn’t come through, with Curtis Mead flying out and Abrams striking out to end the inning.
For the second night in a row, the Nationals carried a 4-3 deficit into the ninth. And for the second night in a row, the Marlins put the game out of reach.
Mikolas, who had been cruising after the fifth inning, gave up two singles. That ended his night, Butera instead turning to Mitchell Parker, the only lefty remaining in the bullpen.
“I thought Miles was throwing the ball well, after that fifth inning, he settled in there,” Butera said. “When you’re down to start the inning there in the ninth, I wanted to give Miles an opportunity. Once a couple of guys got on, with the left-handers coming up, I wanted to go to Mitch there.”
Parker has been less than reliable this year, and his 5.28 ERA went up after Tuesday’s meltdown. A safety squeeze by Mack sent in one run, and a two-run homer by Hernández made it a four-run deficit for Washington.
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