Struggling Washington Nationals Reach Critical Series Against Division Foe Miami Marlins

The Nationals return home after being swept in Queens by the New York Mets in a series that involved a walk-off, a complete game shutout, and an almost rally ruined by more bad fundamental baseball. The Nats have now lost 5 straight games, dropped 3 consecutive series, and only won 2 of their last 10 games. With the Marlins and Rockies coming to DC the next 2 series, it is absolutely critical for the club to win every game they can, as after that they go on a road trip that includes series against the Dodgers, Padres, and Tigers. They’ll begin this homestand against the Miami Marlins, who come in looking just as dead as the Nats.

Promising Young Bats, Struggling Veteran Arms

The Marlins are at a point in their rebuild that Nats fans are familiar with, where you can see the young pieces of a future competitive club taking shape, but the rest of the team is not strong enough yet to make any noise. The Marlins’ offense ranks 20th in the league in OPS at .690, a respectable number considering they blew it up and traded everyone last year, and features interesting young names such as LF Kyle Stowers and C Agustin Ramirez. In the rotation, it’s been a mix of underperformance by the veterans and injuries to the youngsters, with Sandy Alcantara pitching to an ERA over 7 and Max Meyer and Ryan Weathers both hitting the IL this month. The good news for the Marlins is that their young ace Eury Perez is back for them and will pitch this Sunday against MacKenzie Gore and the Nats.

Team Stats:

Team OPS: .690 (9th in NL, 20th in MLB)

Team OPS Leader: Kyle Stowers (.804)

Team HR Leader: Kyle Stowers (10)

Team ERA: 5.06 (14th in NL, 28th in MLB)

Team ERA Leader: Edward Cabrera (3.99)

Game One – Friday 6:45 EDT

MIA: Edward Cabrera (2-2) – 49.2 IP, 3.99 ERA, 1.47 WHIP

WSH: Mitchell Parker (4-6) – 71 IP, 4.44 ERA, 1.25 WHIP

With former CY Young winner Sandy Alcantara having a nightmareish start to his 2025 campaign, Edward Cabrera has become the new head of the Marlins rotation, or at least was until Eury Perez’s return. He’s putting up very respectable numbers, especially in his last 7 starts, where he has a 3.09 ERA, and is coming off a short but clean outing against the Rays, where he allowed 1 run over 4 innings.

After a rough stretch of starts that had fans questioning Parker’s future in the Nats rotation, he rebounded nicely with a start of 6 innings and 1 run against the Rangers. He still has an ERA north of 6 in his last 7 starts, but if he can show more of what he did in that Rangers start, he’ll become one of the Nats better young arms again as the whole rotation (except Gore) struggles from the same kind of inconsistency.

Game Two – Saturday 1:05 EDT

MIA: TBD

WSH: Trevor Williams (3-7) – 64 IP, 5.91 ERA, 1.44 WHIP

It will likely be a bullpen game for the Marlins on Saturday, with Fangraphs listing reliever Valente Bellozo as the most likely to get the ball first for them. He’ll likely go anywhere between 3 to 5 innings for them before turning it over to their bullpen the rest of the way.

I’ve expressed my dismay for Williams still being in the rotation in the past, but unfortunately, he still hangs around. The key for Williams against the Marlins will just be to give the Nats a solid 5-6 innings and keep them in the game before turning it over to the bullpen to finish the job. Williams has not made it out of the 4th inning in his past 2 starts, so we’ll see if he can do better than that this time around.

Game Three – Sunday 1:35 EDT

MIA: Eury Perez (0-1) – 3 IP, 12.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP

WSH: MacKenzie Gore (3-5) – 81.1 IP, 2.88 ERA, 1.12 WHIP

The Marlins are likely to take it slow with their young star in Perez as he returns from Tommy John surgery, having him go only 3 innings vs the Pirates in his return. Expect more of the same against the Nats, going no more than 5 or so innings unless he is really cruising. With the Marlins pitching a bullpen game the day prior, it will be critical for the Nats to pounce on a likely gassed Marlins pen in this game once Perez leaves.

Gore has continued to show why he is the real deal lately, giving up 2 runs over a combined 13 innings against 2 of the best clubs in the NL in the Mets and the Cubs in his last 2 starts. He’ll now get a chance to face one of the weaker lineups he’s faced in a few starts in the Marlins, hopefully doing so to secure a series win or sweep for the Nats.

Sink or Swim

It won’t be enough for the Nats to just squeak by these next 2 series against the worst clubs in the NL, they need to dominate them and prove that they aren’t also a member of that level of club. If they can’t, the fanbase may reach a boiling point and more jobs will be called for than ever.