Nationals stifle Marlins to even series

Luis Garcia Jr. homered and Dylan Crews stole two bases and scored a run as the host Washington Nationals evened their four-game series with the Miami Marlins with a 4-1 victory on Friday night.

Rookie left-hander DJ Herz (4-7) picked up the win by allowing one run on four hits over five innings, walking one while striking out five. Kyle Finnegan pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his 37th save.

The Nationals (66-81) finished with five stolen bases in the contest to improve to 17-0 this season in games they steal at least four bases.

Otto Lopez homered and Xavier Edwards and Javier Sanoja each had two hits for Miami (55-93), which suffered its fourth loss in the last five games.

Edward Cabrera (4-7) suffered the loss. He allowed two unearned runs on just one hit over six innings. He walked one and struck out nine but also committed two of the Marlins' three errors.

Washington took a 2-0 lead in the first inning without hitting the ball out of the infield.

Crews -- who made a highlight-reel leaping catch at the right field wall in the top of the inning to rob Connor Norby of an extra-base hit -- beat out a grounder to short to open the inning and then stole second and third. After Jose Tena walked with two outs and stole second, Cabrera looked like he would get out of the jam when he got Garcia to hit a ground ball to first. However, Cabrera, covering first, dropped Jake Burger's throw near the bag for an error that allowed both Crews and Tena to score.

Miami cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth when Lopez hit his fifth home run into the bullpen in left-center.

The Nationals added two runs in the seventh off reliever Anthony Veneziano to make it 4-1. Garcia led off with a 415-foot home run to right, his 16th of the season and first since Aug. 21. One out later, Drew Millas reached on an error by Edwards at shortstop, stole second and scored on a single by Jacob Young.

--Field Level Media