Washington Nationals’ lineup for the series finale with the Miami Marlins

We know it’s hard to believe, but Kyle Schwarber did not homer in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Miami Marlins. Schwarber, who came into the game in the midst of an otherworldly run that saw him hit 13 home runs in 14 games, went 0 for 4 with a walk and three strikeouts, in just the fourth game in his last 16 in which he didn’t record a hit.

“For me it’s just — he understands about playing the game, and like I said, his good at bats, his results thus far have been hitting the ball over the fence, but he understands, you know, all he’s trying to do is put the ball in play and keep us going, you know, it just didn’t happen for him today,” manager Davey Martinez said after Washington’s 3-2 loss in Miami.

The Nationals scored two runs, on RBI doubles by Juan Soto (in the first) and Starlin Castro (in the fourth), but they went 1 for 9 overall with runners in scoring position and nine left on base in the one-run loss, which was the club’s ninth loss in 21 one-run games this season.

“We squared some balls up today, but just couldn’t get the job done today. This guy [starter Zach Thompson] — his curveball, Thompson’s curveball was pretty good, his changeup was pretty good today, kept us off-balance,” Martinez said.

“We hit some balls hard, I know [Ryan Zimmerman] came up there in the seventh inning, man on second base, and hit a bullet to right field.

“I thought when he hit it it was going to go over [Adam Duvall’s] head, but it didn’t, he caught it.

“We just got to come back tomorrow, we’ve got [Max] Scherzer on the mound tomorrow, and try to win tomorrow.”

Josh Bell went 1 for 4 in his return to the lineup after missing two games while he had an issue around his oblique checked out, and he said he didn’t think back-to-back losses in Miami were a step back for the club.

“You got Max on the bump tomorrow,” Bell said, echoing his manager’s take, “so that takes a little bit of pressure off of us, we know we just got to scratch a couple of runs across and let him do his thing, so no reason to panic now, we’ve been playing really well and we’re going to continue to do that.”

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR THE 4TH OF 4 WITH THE MARLINS: