Washington Nationals continue their weekend series with a win against the Marlins, 4-0 (With correct Score)

Washington, D.C. - Today, the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 4-0. The Nationals now have a record of 34-36 and 15-17 at Nationals Park. The Nationals will go for the series sweep tomorrow afternoon and send LHP Mitchell Parker to the mound in hopes of getting the win.

LHP DJ Herz started for the Nationals today, looking for his first major league win. He got it thanks to his impressive 6.0 innings of shutout ball, only allowing one hit and striking out 13. Herz faced 19 batters and threw 84 pitches, with 57 of them being strikes.

The 13 K's by DJ Herz are the second-most in a game by a rookie this season and the most by a lefty rookie:

• 1. Luis Gil - 14
• 2. DJ Herz - 13
• 3. Paul Skenes - 11
• T4. Ben Brown - 10
• T4. Jared Jones - 10, 2x.

Additionally, DJ Herz's 13 strikeouts are the most by a Nationals pitcher this season since Max Scherzer struck out 14 on May 8, 2021, in New York against the Yankees, and Herz struck out 13 of the 19 batters he faced today (68.4%). That's the second-highest strikeout percentage by any MLB rookie in a game in the modern era (min. 15 batters faced), behind only Kerry Wood in his 20-strikeout game on May 6, 1998 (69.0%) according to OptaSTATS.

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Sarah Langs of MLB.com pointed out that DJ Herz and Stephen Strasburg ( 14k’s on June 8, 20210) are the only two pitchers who got 13+ strikeouts and zero walks in one of their first three career outings since at least 1901.

After getting pulled, the Washington Nationals did not allow another run

Things got a little close at the top of the eighth as RHP Hunter Harvey loaded the bases with two outs, but Harvey got Marlins Tim Anderson to strike out with an 89.3 mph splitter to retire the side and the threat.

This afternoon, the Nationals bullpen got four shout-out innings. Dylan Floro did not even give up a hit or a run in the seventh; in the eighth, RHP Hunter Harvey didn’t surrender a run but walked one and gave up two hits, and Kyle Finnegan came into the game at the top of the ninth and got his 20th save of the year. Overall, the Washington Nationals pitching staff struck out 17 Marlins this afternoon.

The Nationals got off to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a sacrifice fly from Joey Meneses, scoring Lane Thomas. It would be Lane Thomas at the bottom of the third, hitting his sixth home run of the season, which went 378 feet to center.

The Nationals got two additional runs in the bottom of the eighth thanks to a CJ Abrams double, his 15th of the season, and a Joey Meneses two-run homerun, his third of the season, gave the Nationals some insurance runs heading into the top of the ninth.

Next, the Washington Nationals will wrap up their weekend series against the Miami Marlins tomorrow afternoon, with the first pitch at 1:35 p.m. with the Nationals sending LHP Mitchell Parker (4-3; 3.21 ERA) to the mound. The Nationals will face LHP Jesús Luzardo (3-5; 5.11 ERA)

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