A day after matching their best offensive performance of the season, the visiting Washington Nationals hope their late-season momentum carries into a series win against the reeling Miami Marlins on Tuesday.
Washington (59-84) tied its season highs for runs and hits (19) on Monday, bludgeoning the Marlins for a 15-7 win. The Nationals, doing their best to avoid a 100-loss season, enter Tuesday as winners of three in a row and six of the past seven.
With less than three weeks left in a campaign that will see Washington miss the postseason for the sixth straight year, the club has virtually the same winning percentage under interim manager Miguel Cairo (22-31, .415) as it did when Dave Martinez was fired on July 6 (37-53, .411).
Playing for the future, the Nationals hope nights like Monday can serve as a precursor to 2026. Dylan Crews, the club’s No. 2 overall draft pick in 2023, homered and drove in four runs in the series opener. Crews, 23, is batting just .208 this season, but he has hit safely in five of his past eight starts and matched his career high with three hits Monday.
“You’re going to fail in this game. It’s how you react to it, how you come back every day and handle your business, that’s what matters,” Cairo said. “(Dylan) knows how to do that, he knows how to put things behind him. He’s going to be fine, and I believe in him. As long as I’m the manager, he’s going to play.”
Mitchell Parker (7-15, 5.87 ERA) will make his 29th start of the season for the Nationals on Tuesday, looking for his first win since July 26. Over his past seven starts, he is 0-5 with a 9.28 ERA.
Parker, 25, faced Miami on Wednesday, allowing four runs (two earned) on seven hits across 4 2/3 innings in a no-decision. Washington won 10-5. In six career starts against the Marlins, Parker is 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA, including an 0-1 mark with a 7.07 ERA in three starts this year.
Miami (66-78) is limping to the finish line. The Marlins have dropped six of seven and are on the verge of posting their fourth losing season in the past five years. Miami allowed at least 15 runs in a game on Monday for the third time in 2025, dropping the pitching staff’s ERA to 4.79 — third worst in the National League.
Although strides have been made in Clayton McCullough’s first season as manager, the club will miss the postseason for the 29th time in 33 years since joining the major leagues as an expansion club in 1993.
The third-youngest team in the big leagues at 26.5 years old on average, the Marlins hope their youth in 2025 will evolve into a winning culture in the coming years. The most recent youngster to accomplish a major league feat was Victor Mesa Jr., who launched his first career homer in the Monday defeat on his 24th birthday.
“We’ve had a great opportunity this year to see a lot of firsts for many of our young players that have come up,” McCullough said. “Congrats to Victor, it’s a moment he’ll always remember.”
Adam Mazur (0-2, 5.74 ERA) is slated to make his fourth start for Miami on Tuesday. Mazur faced Washington on Sept. 2, throwing six innings of five-run ball (four earned) in a 5-2 loss. In two career starts against the Nationals, Mazur is 1-1 with a 6.55 ERA.
–Field Level Media
