The Miami Marlins will need to win their remaining seven games to finish with a .500 record after the Washington Nationals won 2-1 on Sunday.
The win completed a four-game sweep for Washington and sent the Marlins reeling to their fourth consecutive loss. Miami is only 3-7 in its last ten games and has fell to fourth place in the division. It remains possible that the Marlins could tumble all the way into last.
There was a scary moment in the bottom of the seventh inning when Marcell Ozuna injured his ankle on a play at second base. The center-fielder had to be helped off the field and was diagnosed with an ankle sprain that will end his season.
Nathan Eovaldi did about as much as he could but it wasn't enough. Eovaldi allowed two runs on seven hits in six innings of work. That goes down as a quality start in the books but also his 13th loss of the season. The right-hander is expected to make one more start this year and he will look to improve upon his 4.44 E.R.A.
Andrew Heaney gave the Marlins a nice positive sign next with three fantastic innings of relief. The top prospect allowed only one hit, walked none and struck out two. Heaney will enter Spring Training with a chance at cracking the starting rotation in 2015.
The one run batted in for Miami was courtesy of Donovan Solano in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Marlins only had four hits on the day as Stephen Strasburg dominated them along with the Washington bullpen.
Miami will begin its final home series of the year on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies. Henderson Alvarez will make the start for the Marlins.
