'It's us against the world': Marlins belt 4 HRs for 3rd straight win

WASHINGTON -- The Marlins are going to keep this National League Wild Card race interesting, aren’t they?

If there’s a message from their past few days in the nation’s capital, that’s it, especially after erupting for their third straight win with Saturday’s 11-5 rout of the Nationals at Nationals Park. Miami’s offense broke out for four homers to support Johnny Cueto’s first victory of the season as the Marlins kept pace again in the NL Wild Card race with one of their more lopsided wins in weeks.

• Games remaining: at WSH (1), vs. LAD (3), at PHI (3), at MIL (4), vs. ATL (3), vs. NYM (3), vs. MIL (3), at NYM (3), at PIT (3)
• Standings update: The Marlins (69-67) are 1 1/2 games behind the D-backs (70-65) and the Giants (70-65) for the third NL Wild card spot and a half game behind the Reds (70-67). Miami would hold the first tiebreaker, based on head-to-head matchups, over Arizona (4-2), but not necessarily against San Francisco (3-3) or Cincinnati (3-3).

“We have a lot of talent, and we have to trust that,” outfielder Bryan De La Cruz said. “The engine, the gears, are turning, and it feels good. Not all the games are going to look like this, but we need to make sure the majority do look like this.”

De La Cruz’s fourth-inning three-run homer was the backbreaker as the Marlins feasted on Trevor Williams, riding a pair of homers from Jake Burger and another three-run blast from Jesús Sánchez to nine runs over the first four innings. De La Cruz and Luis Arraez both enjoyed four-hit games as Miami racked up 18 total hits , one shy of its season-high, in a performance that made its punchless August feel like a thing of the past.

“We’re doing what we talked about, which is getting back to ourselves, not trying to do too much and just [being] who we are,” Burger said. “It’s really easy when the offense is struggling to try to hit a five-run home run. I don’t think we’re doing that. I’m not doing that anymore.”

Despite Arraez’s near-historic year out of the leadoff spot and Jorge Soler’s prolific power campaign, the Marlins remain the NL’s lowest-scoring team. It’s in between, and everywhere else, where the lineup has yet to truly click, which is why Miami added two power bats in Burger and Josh Bell at the Trade Deadline with an eye toward filling in the power gaps amid the club's contact-heavy approach.

The results didn’t immediately take. Miami scored the NL’s fewest runs in August and plunged in the standings, finding itself behind three teams in the race for the NL’s final Wild Card spot at the dawn of September. A few days into the month, with Soler sidelined since Tuesday due to lingering hip issues, it’s probably premature to say Miami’s lineup is indeed firing on all cylinders. But six weeks after the Deadline, the impact of those acquisitions is plain to see.

Bell and Burger are solidifying the Nos. 2 and 3 spots with Soler out, providing Miami’s lineup depth and balance it previously lacked. And the dynamic is having positive downstream effects, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. heating up, Garrett Hampson contributing from the bottom of the order and Arraez (nine hits in his past three games) syncing back up at the top. Miami has put up 25 runs on Washington over the past three games, all victories.

“When Arraez sets the tone, and you get length in the lineup, this is a really good lineup,” manager Skip Schumaker said.

Meanwhile, Burger and Bell are producing: Burger’s pair of solo homers Saturday were his fourth and fifth with Miami, pushing him to 30 long balls overall; he’s hitting .315 with an .883 OPS since the deal. Bell has an .847 OPS and eight homers in 28 games with the Marlins, after posting a .701 OPS and 11 homers in 97 games with the Guardians. Soler could return as early as Sunday’s series finale, when the Marlins will look to open the critical month of September with a four-game sweep.

“There is a lot of energy in the dugout and we’re having fun, just playing our style of baseball and trying to have as much fun as possible,” Burger said. “It’s us against the world.”