Offishial news, 9/4/23: Marlins mop Nationals; Johnston goes 20/20

Sunday's Games

Marlins Podcast Episodes

• Sunday's Marlins MiLB Notes: 1B Troy Johnston (Jacksonville) completed a 20 HR/20 SB season. He's the first Marlins minor leaguer to go 20/20 since Bryan Petersen in 2008! Ryan Weathers threw five scoreless innings and earned a win. More control issues for RHP Evan Fitterer (Pensacola), but overall, one of his best starts of the season (5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, 91 pitches/49 strikes). C Will Banfield hit his 20th home run. OF Chase Luttrell (Beloit) is in a 3-for-39 slump.

• Blue Wahoos OF Davis Bradshaw confirmed that an injury will sideline him throughout the Southern League playoffs. He had a .314/.383/.405 slash line (124 wRC+) in 86 games this season, albeit while facing much younger competition. Bookmark our injury/rehab tracker.

• The Marlins are riding a four-game winning streak, their longest since late June. They went a perfect 7-0 at Nationals Park this season. Similar to 2022, the seemingly large gap in the standings between them and the Nats can be explained by head-to-head record.

• Sandy Alcantara retook the MLB lead in innings pitched (184.2 IP). He also committed two errors and now leads all pitchers in that department as well with five.

• NL Wild Card race updates: the Cubs and Phillies won, while the Brewers, Diamondbacks, Giants and Reds lost. The Marlins are in a three-way tie for the third Wild Card spot.

• On a related note, I'll be tracking the status of tiebreakers between the Marlins and other Wild Card contenders in the event that the final regular season standings aren't enough to determine postseason berths.

• Elsewhere around the majors, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman both went 0-for-4. Luis Arraez is now up by 21 points on them in the NL batting title race. Jorge López tossed a scoreless inning in his return to the Orioles.

• Entering this new week, the Marlins have 26.3% playoff odds, per FanGraphs.

• Our 2023 FOF Super Subscribers fantasy football league is set. The league is viewable here.

• With eight series remaining in the MLB regular season, Willyans is clinging to a slim lead in our 2023 Prediction Time contest. All Super Subscribers are encouraged to play along with us.

Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images