Marlins Keep Nationals Reeling

Marlins 9, Nationals 6

In separation, neither is better off. The Washington Nationals miss Nyjer Morgan as much as Morgan misses his team. Morgan has a broken hand. The Nationals, as a result, look like a piece of broken machinery, fractured at the top of their order -- and still winless since they lost their center fielder.

Morgan was built for nights like Friday, where the middle of Washington's lineup was cranking but just needed a spark. In a 9-6 loss to the Marlins at Nationals Park, the Nationals were halfway functional when they needed to be whole. Ryan Zimmerman had a triple, a single and a walk; Adam Dunn reached base four times; Josh Willingham had a homer and a single; Elijah Dukes had two singles and two walks.

But right now, without its top-of-the-order spark plug, the Nationals' lineup toggles on and off. In a game where the Marlins knocked out Garrett Mock after three innings and scored runs in five of the first six frames, the Nationals couldn't keep pace. Florida's 3-4-5 hitters had eight RBI. Washington's 3-4-5 hitters -- getting little help from leadoff man Justin Maxwell (1 for 4) and No. 2 hitter Cristian Guzmán (0 for 5, with a double play) -- had just four.

Washington must adjust. Morgan, injured Aug. 27, is out for the year. If anything, the week since his injury has only reaffirmed his value. He scored 34 runs in 48 games with Washington, batting .351 and stealing 24 bases. The Nationals had a 22-26 record with him. Since he fractured his hand, though, they're 0-7. They have just one stolen base. They've scored 15 runs.

"Oh man, it [stinks]," Morgan said on Friday. "There have been a couple times where I've had to turn off the TV, because I've been playing along with the game in my head."

"He's not here," General Manager Mike Rizzo said, "so somebody has to pick up the slack."

Several players missed opportunities to tighten this game. In the fifth, trailing 7-5, the Nationals loaded the bases with one out, but Dukes struck out and Josh Bard grounded to first. In the seventh, with Washington trailing 9-5, the bases were again loaded for Bard, who struck out on a check swing. Only in the eighth did Zimmerman, for the first time all night, come to the plate with runners on base: His two-out single up the middle gave Washington its sixth and final run.

Early on, both teams -- with sluggers exchanging blows and pitchers taking a beating -- signaled the warning for a long, wild night. Three innings in, Florida and Washington had combined for 11 runs. The Nationals had two triples and a homer. The Marlins had two homers and a triple. And both starters had been knocked from the game.

Washington's Mock, trying to build in a run of recent quality, instead catered to a critical mass of quality hitting, and the home runs proved especially costly. Florida had already collected two singles and a run when Jorge Cantu, the cleanup hitter, battled back from an 0-2 count, fouled off three in a row, and cranked the sixth pitch -- an inside fastball -- just several feet beyond the left field fence, an arm's width away from a leaping Willingham.

For Mock, the three-run, four-hit first inning was only the start. After Nick Johnson knocked in Florida's fourth run with a soft, two-out single in the second, Mock watched it just drop over the shortstop's head and bashed his bare hand into his mitt, a frustrated karate chop. Even worse, Mock immediately squandered Washington's two-run rally in the second by giving up a two-run homer, a John Baker opposite field rip after a leadoff walk. His final line: three innings, seven hits, six earned runs. It was just the second time since Aug. 1 that a Washington starter had allowed six or more earned runs.

"Garrett has really made progress in the last month, but he just didn't have it tonight," interim manager Jim Riggleman said. "I shouldn't say he didn't have it, because that kind of takes credit away from the Marlins; they were really swinging the bat. They did a great job. A combination of Garrett not being sharp and those guys, they have a lot of professional hitters over there, and they got him."

The Nationals made a game of it in the third, when Zimmerman tripled, Dunn legged out an infield single and Willingham crushed a first-pitch Sean West fastball to deep left, over the visitors' bullpen. But Washington would get no closer.

"We've just got to get back to doing the little things right," Zimmerman said. "It's one of those times where when you pitch you don't pitch and when you pitch you don't hit. We've just got to battle through it."