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The Marlins fell behind to the Nationals early, then had a big rally to come back in the eighth, tying up the game. Alas, José Ureña and the bullpen let the floodgates open in extras, leading to a 10-4 final score that doesn’t reflect the club’s true competitiveness.
Jordan Yamamoto: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
Stephen Strasburg: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
The Nationals’ hits came in bunches against Yamamoto. They were also able to take walks against a not-always-steady rookie in his first game back from the injured list (forearm strain). The Nats got their first run during the second inning. Yan Gomes came up to the plate with two outs and doubled. Stephen Strasburg batted next and singled off of a low ball out of the zone. The one run already felt like a deep hole with Strasburg on the mound.
The Nats added to their lead in the fifth inning. Trea Turner led-off with a double. Anthony Rendon then drew a walk. Yamamoto was pulled after that and Brian Moran was called in. Moran struck out the only batter he faced which was Juan Soto. Newly extended manager Don Mattingly then took out Moran for Tyler Kinley. Asdrúbal Cabrera was the first person to face Kinley and he singled in the second run of the game. Kinley was able to get Ryan Zimmerman out to finish the inning.
The Nats scored two more runs in the eighth, but it was the Marlins who did the most damage. They scored four runs to even up the game. Miguel Rojas got the ball rolling with a double. Starlin Castro matched this with a double of his own, scoring Rojas. Isan Díaz earned himself a walk after battling for seven pitches. Harold Ramirez singled to load up the bases.
Austin Dean got the opportunity to attack with the bases loaded. He cleared the bags with a game-tying, three-run double. This put the Fish and Nats back to square one, that is until the tenth inning.
José Ureña was tasked with keeping the game in Miami's grasp. He gave up three runs over 1 2⁄3 innings. Three singles in the 10th was finally enough to get him pulled. Josh Smith was called in, but he also struggled. He gave up three hits, allowing all of the men Ureña left on base to score.
The implosion only added to how badly the Nats have owned the Fish this year, losing the last 11 games against their NL East rivals.
Pablo López will take on Austin Voth at 1:10 ET in the final Marlins home game of 2019.
Marlins vs Nationals box score (MLB.com)
The Marlins’ magic number? 18,407. That is the official attendance they’ll need in their final home game on Sunday to reach a 10,000 per game average for the season.
— Fish Stripes (@fishstripes) September 22, 2019
A crowd of 19,511 would match last season’s attendance total (811,104).
Fish Picks answer key
- Nationals
- Under
- Over
- No
- Nationals