Marlins hit speed bump in Wild Card pursuit

MIAMI — The Nationals have been searching for offense during a four-game losing streak that slowed their march to secure the National League East. They had managed just eight runs during the stretch without second baseman Daniel Murphy, who was out of the starting lineup for a fourth consecutive game with a left leg injury.

But Washington’s offense broke out in Wednesday night’s 8-3 victory over the Marlins at Marlins Park, including a three-run homer from Ryan Zimmerman and a solo blast from Trea Turner, to back a strong start from right-hander Max Scherzer, who won No. 18.

“We had some good offensive days out of some guys, especially after our offense was a little sleepy the last couple days,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. “We picked Murph up, which I urged everybody to do.” 

The victory lowered the Nationals’ magic number for clinching the NL East for the third time in five seasons to two, after the Mets fell to the Braves, 4-3.

“You’ve just got to keep your blinders on and keep going at it,” Scherzer said. “You can’t worry about playoffs and [everything else]. You’ve got to just go out there and understand that if you take care of business, good things happen. And I think if everybody does that, we’re going to be partying.”

Scherzer cruised through the first six innings before serving up a pair of homers in the seventh. Marlins outfielder Christian Yelich started the inning with a homer, his 20th, and Derek Dietrich added a pinch-hit two-run blast to knock Scherzer out of the game. But the Nationals’ offense responded with a pair of runs in the eighth inning to extend the lead back to five.

The Marlins were unable to overcome a short start from right-hander Tom Koehler, who lasted only four innings, as they fell back to .500 and are struggling to keep pace with the trio of contenders ahead of them in the NL Wild Card race, remaining four games back.

“It kind of leaves us in the same spot,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Obviously, it would have been nice if we could have won and cut a game off. So, really, those kinds of wins for us, from the other teams, keeps us alive. So we don’t really go any further. We just lose a game, from the standpoint of we have one less game to play. It obviously makes it tougher, but in a sense, you didn’t go the other way. So you’re still sitting where you’re at.”

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDMuch needed: Zimmerman nearly homered during his first at-bat in the second inning, driving the ball 406 …

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