The Washington Nationals will finish this four-game series and seven game road trip tonight against the Miami Marlins. After tonight’s game the Nationals will travel home and face the Pittburgh Pirates starting tomorrow night. Tonight, left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore will return to the mound after being the the 15-day IL on August 30th due to left-shoulder inflammation. [More on that later in our Game Notes]

This time it was another day, another shabingus of a defensive inning from the Nationals, this time in the bottom of the sixth immediately after tacking on two runs to a 1-0 pitcher’s duel lead. CJ Abrams - who earlier had whiffed on a relay throw from center field that Josh Bell had to slide over and stop between the mound and home plate - started the inning by booting a ground ball. That was immediately followed by two hard singles, the second of which Dylan Crews (of all people) muffed on the transfer, allowing the trail runner to scamper to third. THEN Luis García Jr. appeared to swipe tag Jakob Marzee before throwing away the attempt at a double play, except first base ump Laz Díaz overruled his own second base ump in the moment and called Marzee safe (the Nationals challenged that ruling and lost). That Díaz #umpshow got both Miguel Cairo and Jake Irvin ejected, and then the Marlins promptly scored two more against PJ Poulin. The circus ruined what had been a good start for Irvin for maybe the first time since his Minnesota homecoming.

And then the bullpen began looking like the bullpen of April and May, and the seedy bus stop billboard law firm of Poche, Sims, and López. It was ultimately Jackson Rutledge, who had pitched so well for the past couple of weeks, who ultimately let go of the rope, surrendering a towering Xavier Edwards three-run shot just over the glove of Dylan Crews (who timed his leap perfectly - hey, when “Smooth Operator” says it about your outfield defense, it’s true) to make the score 8-3 in the eighth. The rest, with CJ Abrams and James Wood held to 1-for-8 with five strikeouts, was a mere formality. Robert Hassell III got jobbed on a called strike three for the second time to end the game,

On Deck…

On Friday, the Nationals will kick off a three game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates this weekend. The Nationals are scheduled to send right-handed pitcher Brad Lord with a record of 5-8 and an ERA of 4.20. Lord is coming off a strong start against the Chicago Cubs on September allowing one only earned run on two hits and striking out seven batters over 5.2 innings.

In the hole…

On Saturday, left handed pitcher Andrew Alvarez will make his second career home start which will come against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Alvarez has a 1-0 record and an ERA of 1.86