As August ends, Marlins seek spark in Wild Card pursuit
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WASHINGTON -- If the Marlins are going to surge into the postseason, it’s going to have to come in September.
Miami let an early three-run lead slip away thanks to a pair of two-run home runs by reigning National League Player of the Week Daylen Lile, and the Marlins sank to a 6-3 loss to the Nationals in Monday night’s wraparound-series finale at Nationals Park, closing the book on a 13-14 August.
With only September left, the Marlins have still played only one month of above-.500 baseball -- their blistering 20-6 June -- after missing a chance to accomplish the feat a second time here.
They dropped three of four to the Nationals, a team they’d previously defeated eight straight times. They now head to Kansas City for the second stop of their second-to-last road trip four games behind the Padres for the final NL Wild Card.
The Padres won on Monday night. The Marlins sank to 69-69 for the season with 24 games to play.
“We don’t have a ton of baseball ahead of us, but we have enough,” said Marlins first baseman Kyle Stowers, who hit a two-run single during a three-run fourth. “Just keep going, and we’ve got a big stretch coming up.”
Lile connected despite manager Clayton McCullough twice summoning a bullpen arm explicitly to face the in-form left-handed slugger.
In the fifth inning, Lile took Jack Ralston’s 2-2 slider to the opposite field to close the Nationals’ deficit to 3-2. Ralston entered for starter Ryan Gusto, who had allowed four singles and walked two through 4 1/3 innings of work.
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“I trust the team’s mission to win the game and then put us in the best situation to do so,” said Gusto, who was charged with one run and threw 49 of 69 pitches for strikes. “I feel like the bullpen does a great job, and we have a really good bullpen. So I can never knock putting them in the game to continue putting up zeros to give us the best chance to win.”
In the seventh, Lile turned viciously on Josh Ekness’ inside heater, sending it off the face of the second deck in right to make it 4-3 and commence a four-run frame. The Nationals kept adding on, scoring on Esteury Ruiz’s throwing error from right field and Brady House’s RBI single.
“You go through a lot of decisions each day, and I understand the criticism and the scrutiny when those decisions don’t work out,” McCullough said. “We’re always discussing the thought process and preparedness part of it. But you know what? Sometimes you get beat.”
While McCullough had his bullpen moves, the Marlins’ offense also struggled to produce a sustained threat in this series, scoring 15 runs and in only five of 36 innings.
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After the Marlins’ three-run fourth, they briefly appeared on the verge of more late-inning magic after a six-run ninth in Sunday’s victory.
Otto Lopez, Griffin Conine and Javier Sanoja singled to load the bases with no outs in the eighth. But Erik Tolman entered and struck out Stowers, then induced Leo Jiménez into a 4-3 double play. He stayed on to complete the ninth for an impressive six-out save.
“I don’t think guys are pressing … in the sense of trying to do too much, per se, or feeling the pressure,” Stowers said of the offensive struggles in D.C. “I just don’t think we’re stringing together our best at-bats of the year right now. Why that is exactly? All of us have kind of got to look individually at what we can do better on a nightly basis.”