Fifth inning, poor offense sink Miami

Edward Cabrera held up for as long as he could. 

With just one run of support from his offense through four innings, Cabrera was flying through the game with one of his more efficient starts of his young career. He allowed just one unearned run on a passed ball along with two hits and zero walks. He struck out four and needed just 54 pitches with 34 strikes.

Tied at 1-1 in the fifth, Cabrera allowed a single and a walk to open the frame. He helped himself with a 1-5 putout to throw out the lead runner at third base on a bunt back to the mound, but that was about all the positivity the Marlins would get that inning.

Eddie Rosario, the runner at second base, stole third on the next at-bat. Jacob Young then hit a ground ball to Emmanuel Rivera at first base. Rivera threw home, but catcher Christian Bethancourt was just a hair too late on the tag (he lost control of the ball when applying the tag, anyway).

Cabrera walked CJ Abrams, setting up a bases-loaded opportunity for Jesse Winker. Cabrera hung a curveball middle-middle, and Winker hit it to the home run porch in right field for the grand slam. In a matter of 10 minutes, this pitchers’ duel between Cabrera and Nationals rookie pitcher Mitchell Parker was now a blowout.

"When you are playing sloppy baseball like today—the fifth inning was just not who we are," manager Skip Schumaker said. "Started off with a couple of walks, but the hit back to (Cabrera) that should have been probably a throw to third and then redirect to first for a double play ball. We go for a tag play. That's kind of a mental mental error there."

"Overall that inning just was not who we are and what we're capable of," he continued, "and we need to flush that quick. The only way to work through that stuff is to keep working."

Now with a clean slate on the bases, Declan Cronin came in relief and danced around two walks and a hit-by-pitch of his own to get out of the inning without further damage. 

Cronin would give up a run in the next inning. Kent Emanuel, called up from Triple-A Jacksonville Saturday morning, allowed three earned runs in a three-inning mop-up role.

The offense, again, did nothing to help the cause. They scored one run in the first inning when Mitchell threw a wild pitch to Tim Anderson that allowed Luis Arraez to score from third base. They wouldn't score again until the ninth inning when they were down 11-1.

Bethancourt, mired in an 0-for-29 slump to start the season, got his first hit with an RBI single to deep center field. Otto Lopez then hit his first major league home run: a two-run shot to the grassy batter's eye in center field.

This was the Marlins' second straight loss to the Nats after beating them 11 times in 13 tries last season. There is now a seven-game gap between them in the standings.

Their four-game wraparound series continues on Sunday afternoon.