After three years full of indignities, this one must rank near the top. Since late in the 2007 season, the Nationals have played 28 games against the Florida Marlins, their low-budget National League East rivals. Somehow, Washington has managed to win just three of them.
Even given the Nats’ sorry state — headed for baseball’s worst record a second year in a row — that 3-25 mark is almost comical. The two teams renew their lopsided series with the start of a three-game set at Nationals Park on Tuesday night.
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Washington has lost 10 in a row to Florida, including all nine games this season. But what, exactly, is the problem? As bad as the Nats have played in recent years, this isn’t the ’27 Yankees they’re facing. The boom-or-bust Marlins — twice World Series champs since 1997 — have been rebuilding again. And while clearly on the upswing — they won 84 games a year ago and are on pace to do so again — they are not yet a playoff club.
“Obviously they have a great offense,” Nats outfielder Adam Dunn said earlier this month after yet another loss to Florida. “Every year it seems one team has another team’s number. The Marlins have been that for us É Even when we get a lead, everything snowballs and we let their best players beat us.”
Of course, Florida is a lot closer to the postseason now thanks to a trade with Washington last Friday. The Nats sent one of their best hitters — first baseman Nick Johnson — to the Marlins for a Double-A pitcher. That deal may work out just fine in future seasons. But right now? Big advantage Florida. Johnson reached base five times in his first game with the Marlins and will be in the lineup tonight against his former team — tipping the scales even further Florida’s way.
Washington hasn’t beaten the Marlins since Sept. 23, 2008. Its last sustained stretch of success in this series was in early September 2007 when they swept a three-game set at RFK Stadium and followed five days later with a win in Miami.
