Nats' hot stretch at home quenched by Marlins 

WASHINGTON -- The Nationals had not been swept in two months. An early July series against the Reds was the last time they were held winless against an opponent at home before they went on a hot streak at Nationals Park.

The Marlins, though, are a team that has stifled the Nats this season, home and away. Those struggles continued in a four-game series sweep that concluded with Washington’s 6-4 loss -- its fifth straight -- on Sunday afternoon. The Nats dropped to 2-11 on the season against the Marlins, including 0-7 in the nation's capital.

“We’ve got to play better,” said manager Dave Martinez. “We’ve got to get back to playing consistent baseball. We talk about this all the time, giving teams extra outs. … We can’t allow it to happen. We’ve got to play good baseball.”

Here are three things that stood out from the Nationals’ final series of the season against the Marlins.

Deeper starting pitching
Starters Joan Adon, Jake Irvin, Trevor Williams and Josiah Gray combined to throw 18 innings. That left a heavy workload for the bullpen, including Robert Garcia and Jordan Weems, who pitched in three of the four games.

Gray got the nod on Sunday, looking to bounce back from a two-inning exit his last start in Toronto. While he settled in to throw four frames, early moments were on his mind after the game.

“Things were just speeding up on me, and it’s not in character to show that much frustration out there,” Gray said. “I’ve already apologized to the guys about it. I feel terrible about it, and I’ve just got to learn from it.”

Gray allowed a leadoff home run to Luis Arraez, followed by a single to Josh Bell before he struck out Jake Burger. When rookie center fielder Jacob Young lost a deep fly ball from Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the sun that resulted in a ground-rule double, Gray outwardly expressed his frustrations on the field. He also allowed three consecutive walks before ending the inning on a double play, with the Nats trailing 3-0.

“I don’t want to see that out there,” Martinez said. “If he wants to come in and do that -- we talked about it after the fact, and one of our veteran guys handled it as well and talked to him about it. So everything’s good, but he understands that should be done in here.”

'The errors killed us'
After the Nationals battled back to take a 4-3 lead, costly errors changed the course of the game. With runners on first and third in the sixth, veteran utility player Ildemaro Vargas missed a ground ball from Joey Wendle, allowing the Marlins to even the score.

“As soon as the ball was hit, I thought double play right away,” said Martinez. “The ball went between his legs. I’ve never seen that happen with him, he’s really good out there. The errors killed us.”

The Nationals took a tie into the ninth inning. They had one out with runners on first and second, when Chisholm grounded to Dominic Smith at first base. Smith fired the ball off to shortstop CJ Abrams at second for the second out. But Abrams threw the ball back wide to Smith, allowing the go-ahead run to score.

“Hold the ball there,” said Martinez. “No need to throw that. You’ve got to know who’s hitting and who’s running.”

Abrams, 22, echoed: “I was a little bit overaggressive in that situation trying to make another play. I made a bad throw, and it cost us. … [I would] hold it and then we have two outs, and I’ve got faith that [Kyle Finnegan] can make that third one, for sure. Next time, just be more cautious and aware of the game and who’s running.”

Thomas gets hot in homestand
Lane Thomas went yard not once, not twice but three times against the Marlins to snap a 21-game home run skid. He is the first Nationals player to homer in three consecutive games since Joey Meneses vs. the Rangers in July.

On Sunday, Thomas pummeled a first-inning home run off a 99.6 mph fastball off reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara that flew a Statcast-projected 431 feet out to left field. He connected on the eighth-fastest pitch that resulted in a homer in team history, since tracking began in 2015. It also was the 14th home run in team history that came off a pitch of 99.0 mph or faster.

The only Nationals player to homer a further distance off a faster pitch was Ryan Zimmerman on June 28, 2021, against the Mets (437 feet, 99.9 mph). So does Thomas pay more attention to the speed of the pitch or the distance of the home run?

“Neither,” Thomas said. “I’m just glad I squared something up off him. He kind of owned me for the first six or seven times we faced him, so I’m trying to get back somewhat even.”