Marlins rookie Sixto Sánchez is one of the rising young pitching stars in the Majors. But on Friday night, the 22-year-old was reminded that the Nationals are still the defending World Series champions.

Despite winding down a disappointing season, the Nationals chipped away for eight hits and five runs in four innings off Sánchez and handed the Marlins a 5-0 loss in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Marlins Park.

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The outing was the first time in six big league starts that Sánchez appeared to be in trouble. He allowed personal highs for runs and hits, and the four innings were his fewest. His two strikeouts also were a low. His ERA rose to 2.75 in 32 innings.

“I thought he was fine, honestly,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “I thought they did a pretty good job with him. It looked like they had a specific plan. They tried to jump it seemed like every fastball early, and they got some hits the other way. I thought they did a good job with him.”

Nationals right-hander Erick Fedde had a five-run lead before he yielded his first hit, a single in the fourth inning by Jesús Aguilar.

Fedde and Will Harris combined on a two-hit shutout in the seven-inning game, as the Marlins were blanked for the second time in four days. They lost, 2-0, to the Red Sox on Tuesday.

The Nationals are the first team to see Sánchez twice. The rookie made his Major League debut at Washington on Aug. 22, going five innings, while allowing three runs and getting the win.

Second time around, the Nationals used a plan to attack the hard-throwing right-hander early in the count. It’s a strategy clubs have been using against Sánchez, whose four-seam fastball averages 98.6 mph.

According to Statcast, opponents swing 43.6 percent of the time on Sánchez’s first or second pitch. He’s fourth among all starters, with at least 100 total pitches thrown.

Of the 68 pitches the rookie threw Friday, the Nationals swung at 40 of them.

“I was throwing my best pitches, and they were attacking me early,” Sánchez said via an interpreter. “Then I was trying to do a little something different, but I was leaving the pitches right there, in the zone.”

In the second inning, the Nationals used Sánchez’s penchant for throwing strikes against him, repeatedly attacking pitches early in the count.

“Guys like Sixto, they're going to game-plan for him and try to figure him out,” Mattingly said. “He's going to have to be able to switch gears on teams that try to jump him early. He might have to change what he does. It's not going to get easier for these guys, as teams see more and more.”

The first three batters Sánchez faced in the inning recorded hits while seeing a total of five pitches. Eric Thames singled on the second pitch he saw, as did Yan Gomes. With two out, Luis García ripped a first-pitch sinker for an RBI double.

"I think we watch TV enough and see that you don't want to get deep in the counts against that guy," Gomes said. "He's a tremendous young guy. So we were just trying to get something early in the count and do the damage that we can."

Washington’s second run came after Carter Kieboom worked the count to 2-2, before chopping a 99.6 mph sinker past Aguilar at first for a run-scoring single.

The game got away from Sánchez in the fourth inning, with the Nationals stringing together four more singles and a walk while tacking on three runs to build a five-run lead.

“I need to learn from the mistakes I made today,” Sánchez said. “That already happened and just get ready for my next start.”