3 Worrying Things That Occurred for Nationals During Series Sweep Against Marlins
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It was a good May for the Washington Nationals, as they finished with 16 wins that were the most they've had in a single month in almost three years. But once the calendar flipped to June, this young squad came back to earth.
They were swept at home by the Miami Marlins, a team that came into Wednesday's finale six games under .500. And with this sweep, the Nationals now have a losing record before they head out for a six-game road trip against the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants.
Ups and downs are going to happen for Washington throughout the 2026 campaign, but there were three worrying things that stood out during this set against their division rivals.
Power Outage
The Nationals were outhomered by the Marlins 8-1 throughout the series. Considering Washington came in with 78 home runs and a slugging percentage of .417, while Miami had a total of 53 homers and a slugging percentage of .381, that was not a good result for the home team.
In addition to only hitting one home run, the Nationals had just one other extra-base hit, which was a triple from Luis Garcia Jr. in the second game of this set. So, out of their 17 total hits, they managed to only hit two for extra bases and one over the fence.
Everyone has been wondering if Washington's red-hot offense will begin to cool off at some point following their incredible start to the season. After this performance, that will be something to keep an eye on.
Poor With Runners in Scoring Position
Despite being in the bottom half of the league when it comes to batting average with runners in scoring position, the Nationals had been potent in those situations when it came to actually scraping across runs. They had just under 230 RBIs coming into this divisional matchup, which ranked them second across the majors.
But they did not have that same success in this series, as they went 2-for-19 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base across three games that resulted in only seven total runs being scored. Coming off a stretch of 22 games in 23 days that featured a span of 16 straight, it's understandable why the bats went cold for a bit. However, if Washington is going to keep pushing for a Wild Card spot, they can't afford the offense to cool off for an extended period of time.
Bullpen Struggles
The relief staff had issues during this set. In Game 1, Richard Lovelady gave up two earned runs after he came in for Cade Cavalli. And when the contest was still close in the ninth inning, Cole Henry got shelled for three of his own. Manager Blake Butera used Lovelady as the opener in front of Miles Mikolas in Game 2, but after a strong month of May for Mikolas, he was tagged for six earned runs in his outing. That was followed by Mitchell Parker giving up one, as well. Then, in the finale, Clayton Beeter gave up two key runs in a tie game and Gus Varland allowed one.
All in all, Nationals pitchers who came out of the bullpen were responsible for 15 of the 18 total runs scored by the Marlins. Washington will need this unit to perform much better going forward after it seemed like they had figured some things out in May.
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Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he worked at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad became the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continued to cover Penn State athletics. Currently, Brad is the Publisher for Washington Nationals On SI and covers multiple teams across the On SI network. He is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, where he and his co-host discuss topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai