MIAMI – The Nationals’ first loss to the Marlins in six head-to-head matchups this month came amid a flurry of ground ball singles, defensive gaffes and red-hot emotions that may have gotten the best of them.
During the critical sequence of events that led to tonight’s 8-3 loss at loanDepot Park, both interim manager Miguel Cairo and starting pitcher Jake Irvin were ejected by crew chief Laz Diaz, Irvin shortly after he had been pulled from the game.
The ejections were a direct result of a controversial call made by Diaz’s crew during the decisive bottom of the sixth, but it would be understandable if both Cairo and Irvin’s emotions were so high because of their own team’s shaky play in the moments that preceded the actual controversial call.
This, to be sure, was an ugly game, not to mention a winnable game until Miami blew it open late. The Nationals did not win because they gave up four runs in the sixth and another in the seventh despite very little loud contact off Irvin and the bullpen, but rather a series of ground balls that either found holes or were misplayed by defenders.
"We could've been sharper," Cairo said. "Irvin was pitching really good, and I kind of feel bad for him, because he was dealing. We could've been sharper."
And that’s why the Nats saw their five-game September winning streak against the Marlins come to an end, with one more still to play Thursday evening before they head home at last.
"What happened, happened. It's part of baseball," second baseman Luis García Jr. said, via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz. "Sometimes you commit errors. But you still have to play hard. We're going to come back tomorrow and try to get the win."
Irvin entered this game with a rare advantage on his side: Only one of the current members of the Marlins roster had ever faced him before. And even in that case, Joey Wiemer had taken only two at-bats against the right-hander two years ago while playing for the Brewers.
Despite their co-residency in the NL East, Irvin hadn’t pitched against the Marlins since April 29, 2024. Miami’s roster has turned over so much since then, nobody from that game still plays here. (Josh Bell, by the way, was the cleanup hitter that night and went 0-for-4.)
So Irvin was free to go right after the opposition tonight without worrying too much about making any adjustments, and he thrived as a result with his best outing in some time. That is, for five innings.
Irvin opened his evening with 10 consecutive batters retired, four via strikeout. And he managed to do it with minimal effort, completing his first three innings on a mere 29 pitches. And when he did finally get into a little bit of trouble in the fourth and fifth, he worked his way out of it to keep the shutout intact heading to the sixth.
"We put together a game plan that we thought was going to work," Irvin said. "Watching Cade (Cavalli) and Mitch (Parker) go about their business the last couple nights, they had done a really good job. So I picked their brain a little bit, too. I felt confident and in control, just kind of locked in all night."
But then everything fell apart for the Nationals, even though Irvin himself was only minimally to blame for it. The top of the sixth began with an error on CJ Abrams. It included an error on Dylan Crews. And then it featured an inexplicable play that wasn’t ruled an error but practically speaking served as one and sparked a massive explosion from multiple members of the visiting team.
With runners on the corners, Irvin got Otto Lopez to hit a chopper to second. García fielded the ball and, instead of tossing to Abrams covering the bag, attempted to make a lunging tag of Jakob Marsee before then throwing the ball wild and late to first. Second base umpire Erich Bacchus initially ruled Marsee out, and Marlins manager Clayton McCullough signaled that he wanted to challenge the call. Except the entire umpiring crew then huddled up for several minutes, with Diaz (who was manning first base) stepping in and overruling Bacchus' call on his own, forcing Cairo to then challenge it instead.
"I did feel like I touched him," García said. "Even the runner said that he felt something. I was surprised when they changed the ruling. That's probably the first time I've seen that."
When the word came back from New York that the safe call would stand, Cairo went ballistic and was tossed by Diaz, the interim manager’s fourth ejection in slightly more than two months on the job.
"It was a wrong call made," Cairo said. "I thought he tagged the runner, and I guess Laz saw it different from first base. That's what I was arguing. Irvin pitched his ass off, and he was dealing. He took all the momentum away. It would've been a force out at second. And after that, it could've been the game."
After getting pulled from the game by bench coach Henry Blanco, a disgusted Irvin went straight to the far end of the dugout and began barking at Diaz, who promptly ejected him as well.
"That was the turning point in the game," Irvin said. "I just told him I thought he made a 'good' call."
The real trouble, though, came after all that, with the Marlins recording two more RBI singles off reliever PJ Poulin, completing a four-run rally that flipped the game in their favor and gave them their first lead of the series to date. They added another run in the seventh off Konnor Pilkington and Jackson Rutledge, completing a two-inning stretch that saw the Nats give up five runs on seven hits (all singles, six of which were ground balls), an error and a fielder’s choice.
The Marlins then put the game away in the eighth when Xavier Edwards took Rutledge deep for a three-run homer that barely cleared Crews’ leaping attempt at the wall.
The Nationals had taken a 3-0 lead after waiting out Marlins starter Eury Pérez, who struck out five of the game’s first six batters but began to wilt after that. The Nats got a leadoff double from Brady House in the third, then an RBI single from Robert Hassell III to put themselves on the board first.
And then they got five straight hits in the top of the sixth, plating two more runs in the process. The key sequence: Daylen Lile drove in a run on his ninth triple of the season (matching Bryce Harper’s rookie club record from 2012) and then scored on Garcia’s 107.7-mph single to right.
But they did nothing after that, unable to make up for the pitching and defense that ultimately cost them this game.
"We've just got to do the little things," Cairo said. "We've got to make the routine plays. But they've been playing good. We've just got to come back tomorrow and win the game."
Note: The Nationals optioned reliever Orlando Ribalta to Triple-A Rochester after the game, clearing a roster spot for MacKenzie Gore to be activated off the 15-day injured list and start Thursday night's series finale.