MIAMI — Hello from the one and only (which is probably a good thing) Marlins Park, where tonight the Nationals open a 10-game road trip with the first of three against the Marlins in this amusement park of a baseball stadium. Miami, which entering the season appeared to be the Nats’ biggest challenger in the NL East, is off to a 5-11 start that has left some of the natives restless and prompted some rumors about manager Mike Redmond’s job status.
This team, though, has always seemed to give the Nationals trouble. And it certainly gave Jordan Zimmermann trouble in his final spring training start, blasting the right-hander for eight runs and nine hits (two of them homers) in only four innings.