Marlins drop opener to Nationals in Robby Snelling’s MLB debut
Left-handed pitcher Robby Snelling, the Miami Marlins’ No. 2 prospect and one of the top prospects in all of MLB, shook off a rough first inning to put together a serviceable major-league debut on Friday night.
But that opening inning put the Marlins in a hole they couldn’t climb out of in a 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals at loanDepot park.
The loss drops Miami to 17-22 on the season and 2-6 through eight games of this 10-game homestand — including 0-5 in the handful of games in which Marlins players made MLB debuts. The Nationals improve to 19-20.
Snelling, MLB’s No. 32 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, gave up three runs on five hits while walking four and striking out two over five innings of work. He threw 86 pitches, 54 of which landed for strikes.
All three runs he gave up — and both of his strikeouts came in the first inning. He began his big-league career by striking out Nationals leadoff hitter James Wood on three pitches before giving up a hard-hit Curtis Mead double to left-center field. After getting a second strikeout, this time to Brady House, Snelling then gave up an RBI single to CJ Abrams and a two-run home run to Jacob Young.
Snelling settled in a bit after that opening frame. He still dealt with traffic on the basepaths and spotty command, giving up another two hits and walking four batters, but got out of jams that came his way. This included forcing a pair of double plays in the second and fifth innings.
Most importantly, he didn’t give up runs after that first inning.
Miami’s offense, however, couldn’t pick him up and fully come back from that early deficit.
Second baseman Xavier Edwards hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first and shortstop Otto Lopez scored on a Mead throwing error on a Kyle Stowers ground ball after reaching base on a double. That cut Miami’s deficit to 3-2.
But the Marlins did nothing after that, with Nationals starting pitcher Foster Griffin holding Miami to just the two runs during his seven innings of work before Brad Lord and PJ Poulin combined for two shutout innings of relief.
This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 9:53 PM.
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