MIAMI -- After the Marlins lost the seventh of their past nine games on Friday, manager Skip Schumaker told his team to “get the demons out.” Some of Miami’s relievers took the order quite literally, walking around the clubhouse and field at loanDepot park carrying lit sticks of incense prior to Saturday’s matchup with the Nationals.

Shortly afterward, though, the ballpark fire alarm started blaring. It was unrelated to the incense, per the club, though it may have foreshadowed the futility of the attempted "exorcism."

After pulling ahead with one out in the eighth inning on a first-pitch solo homer from Jorge Soler, the Marlins seemed poised for their first win since Tuesday in San Diego.

Instead, Miami fell apart one strike away from a win, losing to Washington, 3-2, and dropping back to .500 (65-65) for the first time since May 26 (26-26). The Marlins sit three games behind the D-backs (68-62) for the third National League Wild Card spot, 2 1/2 games behind the Reds (68-63) and 1 1/2 games behind the Giants (66-63).

If a tiebreaker is needed to determine a Wild Card spot, it first goes to head-to-head matchups, then to divisional records. Miami won its season series over Chicago (4-2) and split its series with San Francisco (3-3) and Cincinnati (3-3).

“That one hurt,” Schumaker said. “That's just the bottom line. That just -- that one hurt.”

The Marlins trailed early after the Nationals brought home a run on a throwing error from shortstop Joey Wendle in the fourth inning. But Miami mostly shut down Washington, both via pitching and fielding. Eury Pérez allowed just the one unearned run and limited the Nats to three hits while walking one and striking out seven over six innings. That one walk was negated by a caught stealing from catcher Jacob Stallings.

Then Josh Bell struck, tying the game with an opposite-field homer in the sixth inning -- his eighth homer in 22 games since he was acquired by the Marlins before the Trade Deadline. Two innings later, Soler did the same, to almost the same spot, giving Miami its first lead of the series. In the end, it wasn’t enough. The Marlins went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded six on the basepaths.

“I'll take runs however we can get,” Schumaker said. “We had traffic and chances to score more runs, [and] we didn't. Leadoff double [in the third inning] -- we didn't get to get him over [and] get him in, and it ended up costing us later in the game.”

In the end, it came down to one strike that never came. With a 2-1 lead heading into the ninth, the Marlins called on David Robertson. The closer, acquired from the Mets at the Deadline, has struggled since joining Miami. In his 10 appearances (10 innings), Robertson has a 7.20 ERA, compared to his 2.05 ERA over 40 outings (44 innings) with New York. He’s also blown three of his seven save opportunities with the Marlins.

“It's just a crappy outing by me,” Robertson said. “[I] went out there and blew the game for the guys. It was pathetic. Threw the ball like crap, didn't get any outs, just didn't make any pitches.”

Part of the problem on Saturday was luck, though. A triple from Lane Thomas to lead off the ninth hit off the palm of Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s glove in center field. Joey Meneses was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners for Washington, but a heads-up play from Luis Arraez cut down Thomas as he attempted to score on a ground ball from Dominic Smith.

Miami got one more out, a popout, before Jake Alu stepped to the plate. Robertson worked to a 3-2 count, but Alu sent a single up the gap in the middle to score the game-tying run. The winning run came home on a passed ball before Robertson struck out Riley Adams to end the frame.

“He's done it before,” Schumaker said of Robertson’s skill as a closer. “I mean, that's why we got him. He's been the ninth-inning, big-spots, postseason-tested [guy]. And it's not, yeah it's not lack of effort. I think he's definitely giving everything he's got. It's just some unfortunate plays that are happening behind him. … All the guys are giving everything they got. And I think that's what makes it even tougher.”

“We've got another game tomorrow,” Robertson said. “As a reliever, we get thrown in there a lot. It happens. It just sucks that we finally had a chance to win the game, and then I go out there and stink it up, and we got an 'L.' And it's frustrating when we're in a race as tight as we are right now, and we needed this win, and I wasn't able to pick it up for us.”