Smith K's 8 as Marlins end losing skid

MIAMI -- Caleb Smith and strikeouts are becoming synonymous.

The 27-year-old left-hander racked up eight more strikeouts on Friday night in the Marlins’ 3-2 victory over the Nationals at Marlins Park.

Smith’s ability to miss bats is a big reason the Marlins snapped their four-game losing streak and are now positioned to win their first series of the season. All they have to do is win one of the next two against Washington, a tough task when you consider Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg are lined up for Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Sergio Romo got through the ninth in order for his second save of the season and praised the player of the game -- Smith.

“Stuff-wise, it's hard not to match him up with just about anybody,” Romo said. “He's got a very live fastball. You may not see 97-100 like some guys out there, but it's still live -- 93-95. It's not easy to hit. It's moving.”

Smith has been a pleasant surprise early on, lowering his ERA to 2.35 after four starts. In 23 innings, the left-hander has 29 strikeouts. Perhaps his biggest strikeout on Friday came with one out in the sixth inning, when he got Juan Soto with Anthony Rendon on third. That inning ended on a Ryan Zimmerman soft fly ball to right.

“I know most of the hitting guys around the league,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “They're like, '[Smith] is pretty good.' We look at other players and look at their 'pens, and their guys. You get it with certain guys we have.”

Striking out Soto turned out to be a pivotal point in what was then a 1-1 game.

Smith threw a slider in the dirt to Soto, which was blocked by catcher Jorge Alfaro. But Rendon, who has hit safely in 17 straight games, advanced to third on the wild pitch.

“My thought process is, 'I have to strike you out,' because a fly ball ... there's one out,” Smith said of his showdown with Soto. “A fly ball gets him in. My thought process was, 'I've got to strike him out.'”

On the night, Smith threw 87 pitches, 61 of them strikes. Smith induced 15 swinging strikes.

Smith continues to establish himself as one of the better left-handed starters in the game. He entered the night with 46 swinging strikes, 11th highest among southpaw starters, according to Statcast. Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell tops all lefties with 79.

From the first pitch, when Adam Eaton bunted for a base hit, Smith was locked in. Romo noted that you could see it in his eyes that he was ready to battle.

“Once I get locked in, I just have tunnel vision,” Smith said. “I don't know what it is. Once I get settled in, it's hard to get me out of it.”

The Marlins snapped a scoreless streak of 24 innings in the second inning off Washington starter Aníbal Sánchez. Isaac Galloway reached on an error by Zimmerman at first and was credited with an RBI as Starlin Castro scored on the play. Miami grabbed the lead in the sixth, scratching out two runs when pinch-hitter Martín Prado walked with the bases loaded and Curtis Granderson was hit by a pitch.

Smith pushed to stay in the game, but with the score tied at 1 and the bases full, going with Prado was the logical call.

“I definitely wanted to go out there,” Smith said. “I tried to convince them to go back out there. But my spot came up. You had to let Prado go in there.”