MIAMI — It was unpleasant on the field and tense in the dugout Saturday for the slumping Washington Nationals.
Stephen Strasburg endured another rough outing and had a testy exchange with his pitching coach as the Nationals’ losing streak reached four games with an 8-0 thumping by the revitalized Miami Marlins.
Strasburg (1-2) gave up eight hits and four runs in six innings. His frustration showed in the dugout, where he had an animated conversation with pitching coach Steve McCatty after allowing two runs in the fourth.
“That’s something that’s going to be kept between me and Cat,” Strasburg said. “Obviously, I’m a competitive person. It’s nothing that he did; it’s nothing that I did. It was just maybe a little bit of frustration. I’m going to leave it at that.”
The Nationals, the defending National League East champion, fell into a tie for third place with the Marlins, who have won their last four games after a 3-11 start.
“It will turn. It always does,” outfielder Jayson Werth said. “We just have to stay positive. It’s too early to get frustrated.”
Tom Koehler (2-2) gave up six hits in 7 1/3 innings and lowered his ERA from 6.75 to 4.50. Two relievers completed Miami’s first shutout of the year.
Bryce Harper went 0-for-3 and is 2-for-15 lifetime against Koehler. Ryan Zimmerman went 0-for-4, dropping his average to .214.
“It was a rough day for us,” manager Matt Williams said.
Strasburg had shut out the Marlins for 17 consecutive innings dating to last July before they broke through with two runs in the fourth.
Miami added two more in the sixth and went 5-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“Very frustrating,” Strasburg said. “You want to go out there, especially after a loss Friday night, and shut them down. But they took good swings, and they came up big when they needed to.”
Opponents are batting .317 against Strasburg, and his ERA rose to 4.88. He has a 5.65 ERA in eight career starts at Marlins Park.
“He was OK,” Williams said. “There were a couple of balls just out of guys’ dives. That’s the way the ball bounces sometimes.”
Giancarlo Stanton hit his fifth home run, and Ichiro Suzuki had two hits and scored in the eighth. That run, his 1,310th in the major leagues, was the 1,968th of his career, surpassing Sadaharu Oh’s record for a Japanese player.
“When it’s Mr. Oh’s record, it’s very special,” Suzuki said through a translator.
Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer’s right thumb was still swollen on Saturday, and the Nationals pushed back his scheduled bullpen session one day to Sunday. The Nationals are hoping he can make his next start as scheduled Tuesday at Atlanta. He jammed his hand while batting Thursday.
Left-hander Gio Gonzalez (1-1, 3.44), a South Florida native, has won five consecutive starts against the Marlins and faces them Sunday. Right-hander Dan Haren (1-1, 3.32), who pitched for the Nationals in 2013, is scheduled to pitch for the Marlins as they go for a sweep.
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