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

Coming off back-to-back wins over the Pittsburgh Pirates in which they put up runs late and claimed victories, Davey Martinez held out hope the Washington Nationals would rally in the series finale as well, but his club fell short and they had to settle for a series win instead of a three-game sweep.

“Yeah, I thought even the last inning I thought we were going to come back, but it didn’t happen tonight,” the fifth-year skipper told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

“But I’m proud of the way the boys are playing, they’re playing well, we had a good series, we just won a series, so the day off is well-needed and we’ll come back on Friday.”

The Nationals scored seven runs on 16 hits in the 8-7 loss, and were 7 for 14 with runners in scoring position, so there were positives to pull in spite of the ultimate outcome.

“We both scored runs today,” Martinez said.

“We just — we got the day off tomorrow, get some rest and come back Friday, we’ve got Miami coming in, and let’s come back Friday and go 1-0.”

With that weird run-scoring-on-a-non-double-play play, and the mistakes on the basepaths which cost the club at least one run, was it a frustrating way for the club’s three-game win streak overall to end?

“It’s happened a few times this week,” he said of a few odd plays going against the Nats, “... so it’s kind of frustrating. I’m not blaming that we lost the game because of that one play, obviously, but it’s a big run in a one-run game, right?”

HERE’S THE NATS’ LINEUP FOR THE SERIES OPENER WITH THE MARLINS: